Bangarraju, starring actor Nagarjuna and his son Naga Chaitanya, which released in theatres on Friday on the occasion of Sankranthi, has seen a decent opening at the box office, collecting Rs 38 crore (gross) in the Telugu states over its first three days.
This translates to a producer share of Rs 23.75 crore, added Anupam Reddy, secretary of the Telangana State Film Chamber of Commerce, speaking to Silverscreen India.
Directed by Kalyan Krishna, Bangarraju is the sequel to the 2016 film Soggade Chinni Nayana. It is produced by Zee Studios in association with Annapurna Studios. Besides the father-son duo, the film also features Krithi Shetty and Ramya Krishnan.
Reddy told us Bangarraju collected Rs 9.09 crore (producer share) and Rs 17 crore (gross) in the Telugu-speaking states on its opening day. “Theatres saw about 70-80% occupancy for the film. It was mainly a floating crowd, where people come and go, instead of all coming and thronging theatres at the same time, as was the case with Akhanda. Nagarjuna is more of a family hero, so the family audience came in good numbers.”
The festival of Sankranthi is typically marked by the release of big-ticket Telugu films. However, this time, with star vehicles such as RRR and Radhe Shyam opting to defer their releases due to the pandemic situation, a number of small and medium-budget films opened in theatres instead. Apart from Bangarraju, Rowdy Boys and Hero also premiered on the big screen this Sankranthi.
Reddy noted that Bangarraju performed better than those two films and attributed this to the fact that it features known faces.
Balgovind Raj Tadla, secretary of the Greater Telangana Exhibitors Association and partner at Sudharshan 35mm and Devi 70mm single-screen theatres in Hyderabad, also said that Bangarraju performed well. “People only rush to theatres when they want to watch very big films. The audience knew about the postponement of the biggies this time and weren’t as eager about the smaller releases. That said, all three films have seen decent openings because their content is entertaining,” he added.
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Both Tadla and Reddy said they continued screening the earlier releases, Akhanda and Pushpa (Hindi), through Sankranthi, and added that these films still attract a decent crowd.
It is notable that Pushpa, which released on December 17, is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video. Akahanda, meanwhile, opened in theatres on December 2 and will have its digital premiere on Disney+ Hotstar on January 21.