Ready with Thug Life, filmmaker Mani Ratnam on how his experimental instinct and not carrying the baggage of past successes have shaped his rich career
Priyanka Sharma (MID-DAY; May 29, 2025)
Expectedly, Mani Ratnam’s head is always brimming with ideas. And it was, after the release of his last film, Ponniyin Selvan 2 (2023). But the filmmaker points out that his upcoming movie, Thug Life, led by Kamal Haasan, wasn’t one of them.
“This was an idea that Kamal had. We decided to pick this up because something in this idea resonated with me. It had the germ, which I liked,” he smiles.
Thug Life — also starring Silambarasan T R, Trisha Krishnan, and Abhirami — sees Haasan as a gangster, who is forced to turn on his family in the face of betrayal. The June 5 release is pegged as a gangster action drama, but to Ratnam, it is an emotional story that has “a lot of action” in it. Those emotionally charged, interpersonal conflicts are admittedly the “germ” of an idea that struck a chord with him.
“I think action is made for cinema. It has all the elements that highlight the medium fully. I’ve always liked action films, but only when they are an integral part of the film, and not action for action’s sake. This film has action as an integral part of the story. What hooked me were its emotional content, the relationships, and interaction between the characters,” he explains.
Much of the anticipation about Thug Life lies in the fact that it marks the director’s reunion with Haasan 38 years after their maiden collaboration, Nayakan (1987). A lot has naturally changed over the decades.
Has anything remained the same? The trust, Ratnam promptly replies. “When I did Nayakan, Kamal sir had done maybe 100 films. He was a big star, and I, a beginner. But he trusted me fully. He would let us do things exactly the way we wanted. That was encouraging, and it hasn’t changed even today.”
Surely, given Nayakan’s iconic status, the actor-director duo was conscious of the audience’s expectations while making Thug Life. No, says the filmmaker. “You can’t be carrying the baggage all your life. You just try to do the next one. You’re not in competition with your previous work.”
Mani Ratnam agrees that experimenting is risky, especially when the star status of an artiste tempts them to recreate the past glory. But he doesn’t know any way other than experimenting. “It’s a survival instinct, you keep shifting so that you don’t become predictable and repetitive. There is a certain amount of risk [when I do] something new; I don’t know how it is going to be, I have to figure it out. That keeps me excited and fresh.”
This approach has made Ratnam one of the finest Indian directors, with works ranging from a gangster drama in Thalapathi (1991) to a real-life drama in Bombay (1995), from a film about youth politics in Yuva (2004) to a rom-com in O Kadhal Kanmani (2015). Despite the rich four-decade career, the filmmaker confesses to not feeling good enough.
“I am insecure all the time. No artiste would deny that. Insecurity stems from what you think of yourself. I can make a film, and then think I can do better. The standard of cinema around the world is so high. Younger filmmakers are making brilliant movies. So there is always scope for you to push yourself higher, and not settle for where you stand.”
While he keeps mum on what he is planning to do next, we probe about the possibility of him reuniting with his Guru (2007) and Raavan (2010) stars Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan. The rumours of their potential collaboration did the rounds all of last year.
“I am working on ideas, but I don’t really have something concrete to offer the two of them. If I have something which is right for them, I will call and ask them, ‘Can I meet you?’” But are the ideas he is working on exclusively for them? “They are exclusively for me,” he grins.