Thug Life to Vidaamuyarchi: Top 5 overhyped Tamil films that missed the box office mark

Let’s take a look at the most overhyped Tamil movies of 2025 that released with sky-high expectations but ultimately turned out to be massive box office flops.

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Tamil Flop Movies in 2025

Five months of 2025 have already zipped by. There were some highly anticipated movies at the start of the year. Most of them flopped. Over 50 films have released in these five months, but only 6 were successful. The rest tanked. Let's see the top 5 flops in this compilation.

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Vanangaan

Vanangaan, starring Arun Vijay, released during Pongal 2025 with high expectations. It was initially a Surya project, which added to the hype. People thought it would be Bala's comeback film. But it bombed and was quickly pulled from theaters. The weak screenplay was blamed, along with criticism that Bala stuck to his old style.

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Vidaamuyarchi

Vidaamuyarchi, Ajith's first release of the year, directed by Magizh Thirumeni and produced by Lyca, paired him with Trisha. Shot entirely in Azerbaijan, it was expected to be Hollywood-level, but fans were disappointed. The slow screenplay and lack of mass scenes led to its failure, reportedly causing a loss of over 100 crores for the producer.

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Nilavukku En Mel Ennadi Kobam (NEEK)

Dhanush's directorial, NEEK, released in February. Pre-release hype compared it to Premam, but audiences were left wondering, "What's Dhanush's grudge against us?" It barely made 10 crores in theaters. The success of Dragon is also cited as a reason for NEEK's failure, overshadowing its release.

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Retro

Retro was expected to be Suriya's comeback film. While it might have been profitable for Surya as a producer, it caused losses for theater owners. Directed by Karthik Subbaraj, it wasn't a massive flop like Kanguva, but it was just average.

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Thug Life

The latest addition to the 2025 flop list is Thug Life. It's so bad, people are wondering if Mani Ratnam actually directed it. Hyped to make 1000 crores, it's struggling to cross 100. The overblown promotion is another reason for the trolling. The excessive praise has led to netizens bashing the film.