Ali Fazal says he faced flak for doing Kamal Haasan's Thug Life: ‘Just did it for my love for Mani Ratnam sir’s world’

Ali Fazal revealed that he felt welcomed by Mani Ratnam and Kamal Haasan during the filming of Thug Life.

Actor Ali Fazal recently made his debut in Tamil cinema with Mani Ratnam’s Thug Life. The film, which stars Kamal Haasan in the lead role, failed to make a mark at the box office. Now, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter India, Ali revealed that he faced flak for being part of the film.

Ali Fazal talked about Thug Life's box office failure.

Ali Fazal talked about facing flak for Thug Life

Ali spoke about doing the “very tiny role” in Thug Life and said, “I got a lot of flak for it. I haven’t watched it. A lot of people are asking me why I did it. I honestly just did it because of my love for Mani sir’s world. It didn’t work at the box office, as I understand. A lot of people have been messaging me, friends and fans, asking me why I would do something like this. To them I’m saying... that it’s okay.”

Ali added that he had a very pleasant experience working on the film and felt welcomed by Mani Ratnam and Kamal Haasan. He added, “I now know about the scenes that are there and the scenes that are not there. And honestly, I would not question Mani sir’s big vision. They worked out the whole story. I know it went through a lot of changes in the making. Honestly, that’s it to that — chapter closed.” He also expressed his wish to work again with Mani Ratnam in the future.

About Thug Life

Thug Life is a gangster drama that was released in cinemas on 5 June. The Tamil film, which reunited Haasan with filmmaker Mani Ratnam after 1987’s Nayakan, became embroiled in controversy prior to release due to the actor’s remark about the Kannada language. As a result, the film was not released in Karnataka.

The film failed to recreate the same magic as Nayakan and ultimately underperformed at the box office. Made on a budget of over ₹200 crore, the film earned only ₹97.25 crore worldwide.

Meanwhile, Ali Fazal is currently winning hearts with his performance in Anurag Basu's Metro... In Dino. The film, which also stars Aditya Roy Kapur, Sara Ali Khan, Konkona Sen Sharma, Pankaj Tripathi, Anupam Kher, Neena Gupta and Fatima Sana Shaikh, has collected ₹55 crore worldwide in 13 days. He will next be seen in Lahore 1947. Helmed by Rajkumar Santoshi and produced by Aamir Khan, the film also stars Sunny Deol, Shabana Azmi and Preity Zinta in lead roles. The film's release date is yet to be announced.