Kamal Haasan and Mani Ratnam’s much-hyped gangster saga Thug Life has taken a final hit. No. We don’t mean box office hit. This time, it was from the very cinemas that had just ejected it. After collapsing at the box office three weeks in, the film will jump to Netflix in early July, barely four weeks after its 5 June release. The accelerator comes at a cost: India’s national multiplex chains have slapped a ₹25-lakh fine for breaking the film’s eight-week theatrical window.
Now, it is not strange for a Tamil movie to arrive on OTT after 4 weeks. It is pretty standard. The problem is, the makers, in their overconfidence, promised a window of 8 weeks. Now, that is impossible because Netflix won’t be interested in such a fiasco after 8 weeks.
Behind the scenes, the scramble was pure damage control. Netflix had agreed to pay reportedly ₹130 crore for digital rights before release, but the streaming giant reopened negotiations once ticket sales tanked. The deal finally closed at a much lower price on the condition of that shortened window.
It’s the second time a Kamal-Haasan project has seen such an embarrassment. The first time it was with Indian 2 not long ago. With audiences quick-shifting to couches, theatres are flexing what leverage they still have: break the rules, lose the revenue share.
Anyway, there is still time for the film to be released on Netflix India. We promise to keep you posted on the same.
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