Thug Life

Thug Life (2025)

தக் லைஃப்

In a world ruled by crime and betrayal, mafia kingpin Sakthivel and his brother Manikkam rescue a young boy, Amaran, during a violent police shootout and raise him as their own. Years later, when an assassination attempt shakes Sakthivel's empire, suspicion turns inward. Consumed by vengeance, Sakthivel sets out to destroy the very family he once built.

Date of release
2025-06-04
TMDB
5.0 / 10 (30)
Runtime
2h 45m
Genres
Action, Crime, Drama
Director
Mani Ratnam

Casting

Interesting facts

Thug Life is a 2025 Indian Tamil-language gangster action drama film directed by Mani Ratnam, who co-wrote the script with Kamal Haasan. Produced by Raaj Kamal Films International, Turmeric Media and Madras Talkies, the film stars Kamal Haasan and Silambarasan in the lead roles alongside Trisha Krishnan, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Abhirami, Ashok Selvan, Joju George, Nassar, Mahesh Manjrekar, Ali Fazal, Sanjana Krishnamoorthy and Tanikella Bharani. It marks the reunion of Haasan and Ratnam after their previous collaboration, Nayakan (1987).

Production

In late 2002, Kamal Haasan unveiled plans for a film project titled Moo, which he intended to co-direct alongside filmmakers Mani Ratnam and Singeetam Srinivasa Rao. The screenplay was to explore the intricacies of the Rashomon effect, presenting audiences with three distinct interpretations of a single incident. However, Ratnam opted out of the project, citing his commitments to Aayutha Ezhuthu (2004), which used a similar narrative device.

Haasan, who did a voice-over for Ratnam's Ponniyin Selvan: I in 2022, announced on 6 November that he would work with Ratnam again on a project after the Ponniyin Selvan film series. The project was funded by their companies—Raaj Kamal Films International, Madras Talkies—and Udhayanidhi Stalin's Red Giant Movies, which also co-produced Haasan's Indian 2 (2024).

Made on a production budget of ₹180 crore (US$19 million), with marketing costs valued at ₹20 crore (US$2.1 million), Kamal and Ratnam decided to take the revenue sharing model, as they were the producers and benefit the production. Speaking to Anupama Chopra, Haasan stated that the film was based on an original script he wrote, which was the shelved project Amar Hain.

Ratnam stated that the reason for why it took so long to collaborate, was that they did not find a suitable script for Haasan for years until they recently found one which he co-wrote along with Haasan. After Ponniyin Selvan: II released in 2023, Ratnam left to Kodaikanal to write the final script. It took four months for the writing and the pre-production.

In mid-September 2023, Ravi K. Chandran was announced as cinematographer, marking his fourth film with Ratnam after Kannathil Muthamittal (2002), Aayutha Ezhuthu and Yuva (2004) and second with Haasan after the unfinished film Marudhanayagam. A. R. Rahman would score the music, in his eighteenth consecutive film with the director. He further retained his norm technicians including editor A.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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