Tollywood BO: Sankranti Saved January, February Crashed

The new year began on a positive note for Telugu cinema. In January, not just one or two but five straight Telugu films released during the Sankranti season. The festival period brought good occupancy to theaters, and most importantly, except Prabhas’ Raja Saab, none of the releases resulted in massive losses. That itself gave the industry a big sense of relief.

Buyers expected at least half of that momentum to continue in February. However, the month failed to deliver. In many areas, especially in single screen theaters, owners struggled to manage maintenance costs. Due to poor footfalls, several shows had to be canceled. Overall, February could not sustain the positive energy that January created.

Director Gunasekhar’s comeback film Euphoria flopped badly. Naveen Chandra’s horror experiment Honey, directed by Karuna Kumar, turned out to be a washout. Sri Chidambaram Garu also did not attract enough audiences.

The much hyped Funky added another disappointment to producer Naga Vamsi and Vishwak Sen. Actor Arjun personally promoted Seetha Payanam, but the film failed to even take off. Among the February releases, only Santosh Shoban’s Couple Friendly got some decent talk, but at the box office it did not translate much into collections.

Suhas’ Hey Balwanth did not create the magic producers expected. It showed minor collections for two to three days but quickly slowed down during weekdays.

Sree Vishnu’s Vishnu Vinyasam opened to extremely mixed talk. Films like Son of, Nilave, and Nawab Cafe hardly drew attention. In short, February lacked a unanimous hit. The trade now hopes March will open strongly with Sree Vishnu’s Mrityunjay.

This performance clearly shows a shift in the Telugu audience mindset. After spending heavily during Sankranti, viewers are skipping regular releases and waiting for OTT premieres. Exhibitors in Nizam and Andhra reportedly struggled even to pay electricity bills. To survive, distributors relied on re-releases like Ram Charan’s Orange, Mahesh Babu’s Athadu, and Naga Chaitanya’s Ye Maaya Chesave.

Now, the industry hopes on upcoming films such as Dhurandhar 2: The Revenge, Toxic, Ustaad Bhagat Singh, Peddi, and Dacoit to revive the theatrical business in March and April. Whether these films can bring audiences back to theaters remains the big question.