CHENNAI: On Monday evening, various media outlets reported that in his latest interview to a Hyderabad-based digital platform, filmmaker Mani Ratnam had apologised to the audience for Thug Life's failure. The reports quoted the director saying, “For those who were expecting another Nayakan from the two of us, all I can say is we are sorry. It was never our intention to go back. Why should we? We wanted to do something completely different. I think more than over-expectation; it was another expectation. The audience expected something far from what we delivered."
However, there were fresh reports claiming that Mani Ratnam's production company, Madras Talkies had denied the director's statement. When DT Next contacted Madras Talkies, we learnt that both these reports are untrue and there aren't any official statements from the makers on the speculations.
Thug Life marked Mani Ratnam's collaboration with Kamal Haasan 37 years after they made Nayakan and ended up receiving underwhelming response from all quarters. Apart from Kamal the star cast includes Silambarasan, Trisha, Ashok Selvan, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Joju George, Abhirami and Nasser in key roles. Jointly produced by Madras Talkies, Raaj Kamal Films International and Red Giant Movies, Thug Life has music composed by AR Rahman. The film’s first single, Jinguchaa, is already a chartbuster.
Ravi K Chandran is handling the camera, while Sreekar Prasad is in charge of cuts. The action sequences are choreographed by stunt duo Anbariv.