How Much Loss Will Kamal Haasan's Thug Life Suffer At Box Office If Not Released In Karnataka?

Actor Kamal Haasan has decided not to release his latest movie Thug Life in Karnataka amid controversy over 'Kannada born out of Tamil' remarks.

As the Karnataka High Court slammed actor for his remarks, his lawyer informed the court that "Kamal Haasan has the utmost respect for Kannada and nothing more needs to be said", refusing to apologise, NDTV reported.

Thug Life Karnataka Theatrical Rights

The theatrical rights of the movie, which is a joint venture of Haasan's Raaj Kamal Films and Mani Ratnam's Madras Talkies, was acquired by Venkatesh Kamalakar for Rs 8 crore. So, how much money will the actor lose if the movie does not release on time?

Industry insiders say that Thug Life would suffer easily around Rs 10-15 crore, taking into consideration of the performance of Kamal Haasan's and Mani Ratnam's earlier movies.

How Much Will Kamal Haasan Lose If Karnataka Says No?

"Kamal Haasan's last movie Indian 2 had reportedly earned around Rs 9 crore from Tamil, Telugu and Hindi versions. This movie had largely opened to negative reviews and the collection was not up to the mark from the very first weekend," a leading distributor tells Oneindia. However, his Vikram, directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj, had come out with flying colours.

"Vikram had made close to Rs 25 crore," he points out. Interestingly, mega-budget film Kalki:2898 had minted big money in Karnataka. "It had big names in the cast and Kamal had just a small role. The combined collection of all languages was over Rs 70 crore in Karnataka," he notes.

As far as Mani Ratnam's earlier movie Ponniyin Selvan:II is concerned, the movie had estimated to have earned over Rs 20 crore.

Looking at the trends, it is safe to say that Thug Life would lose around Rs 10-15 crore even if the movie opens to not-so-positive reviews. With so much negative publicity, the Tamil film may struggle to pull the audience to theatres.

The mega-budget film, which also has Simbu and Trisha in the leads, is scheduled to release on June 5.