October turned out to be another disappointing month for the Telugu box office. Several films arrived with expectations, but very few managed to make an impact. Some ended up as massive disappointments, while films expected to do well settled for below-average results. There were releases throughout the month, but only a handful managed to bring audiences to theatres.
October 2 saw the release of Sigma, Don’t Trouble the Trouble and Thella Kaagitham. All three failed at the box office. Sigma gained attention because it was directed by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Vijay’s son, while Don’t Trouble the Trouble came with SS Rajamouli’s son Karthikeya as producer. Thella Kaagitham made headlines after it was leaked online before release. Despite the names and PR campaign, none of them managed to attract audiences or deliver decent collections.
On October 9, Comrade Kalyan arrived in theatres. Reviews were not particularly strong, but audiences didn’t outright reject Sree Vishnu’s film. It neither delivered profits nor caused any huge losses.
The Dasara weekend brought several releases on October 16. Vijay Deverakonda’s Ranabaali faced heavy negativity before and after its release. The reviews were extremely mixed, but its box-office performance was debatable. The makers claimed that the film reached breakeven in some areas, while some trade pundits claimed the film was an underperformer.
Garividi Lakshmi received some appreciation and performed well in North Andhra, offering some relief to People Media Factory. Crazy Kalyanam failed to make an impact, while Mythri’s small horror film 418 managed to attract a limited audience.
The month ended with Aadarsha Kutumbam and Cult. Cult failed to attract audiences, and Vishwak Sen once again faced outright rejection after Funky and Laila, while Aadarsha Kutumbam relied on family audiences. Its openings were not encouraging, but the film showed some improvement over the weekend. Trade circles believe its collections are still insufficient to recover the reported production cost. It needs a good long run even after the Ramayana release.
However, Jailer 2 came as a BIG relief to the Telugu box office. Despite being a dubbed Tamil film, Rajinikanth’s star power and the entertainment in the first half helped it emerge as a hit. Even though the second half was poor, the film managed to recover its investment. Distributor Naga Vamsi reportedly acquired it for around Rs. 40 crores, and many initially felt recovering that amount would be difficult. The film proved them wrong and continued to attract audiences even in its second week.
Overall, October was neither a terrible month nor a great one for Tollywood. Telugu cinema failed to deliver a clean hit, but Jailer 2 came to the rescue. Some films claimed to reach break even despite not-so-great public talk, and that was a controversial takeaway from an otherwise average month.
