After a highly anticipated collaboration between two legends — Kamal Haasan and Mani Ratnam — Thug Life has now made its digital debut on Netflix. Despite creating massive buzz ahead of its release, the film struggled to meet expectations in theatres.
The film, which marked the reunion of Kamal Haasan and Mani Ratnam after nearly two decades, was expected to set the box office on fire. However, it opened to mixed to negative reviews and underperformed commercially.
In a bid to find a second audience, Thug Life has now started streaming on Netflix in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, and Hindi. The OTT release offers the film a chance to reach a broader viewership after its theatrical setback.
Interestingly, reports suggest that Netflix imposed a penalty of ₹25 lakh on the makers for violating the standard theatrical-to-OTT release window, which is usually 8 weeks. In this case, the film landed on the platform in just 4 weeks. The original digital rights deal, reportedly valued at ₹135 crore, was scaled down to around ₹25 crore following the film’s poor box office performance.
Thug Life also stars Abhirami, Joju George, and Ashok Selvan, with music composed by AR Rahman. The film is produced by Raaj Kamal Films International, Madras Talkies, and Red Giant Movies.
Though it stumbled in theatres, the film now seeks redemption in the digital space—where storytelling often finds a second life. Whether Thug Life can resonate better with the OTT audience remains to be seen
