Thug Life or Dud Life: OTT Slash, Multiplex Fines

Kamal Haasan’s highly anticipated Thug Life, directed by Mani Ratnam, was released in theatres on June 5th and received disastrous responses from both audiences and critics.

Before the release, Kamal Haasan confirmed that Thug Life would be streamed on the OTT platform with an 8-week OTT window and had also ensured its release in North Indian multiplexes.

Now, according to reports, due to the disastrous responses to Thug Life during its theatrical run, Netflix recently asked to reduce the OTT deal amount to 90 crores, which was initially signed for 130 crores.

However, the Thug Life team negotiated and locked the OTT price at 110 crores, also agreeing to release the movie with a 4-week OTT window.

North Indian multiplexes usually follow a rule that only allows movies to be screened if they are streamed on OTT platforms with an 8-week OTT window.

Due to this, the North Indian multiplex chain has now imposed a fine on the Thug Life team for breaching their norms by agreeing to stream the movie with a 4-week OTT window to Netflix.

Following this, many trade experts are requesting all the filmmakers and producers of Kollywood to hereafter only sign an 8-week OTT window if they are super confident about their movie, and not just for pre-hype buzz or else just to go with the routine way of streaming the movie with 4-week OTT window.

They also feel that Thug Life is one of the biggest disasters in recent times as its OTT price has been reduced, North Indian multiplexes have imposed a fine, and more than all of this it has not even satisfied 10% of audience expectations.