The first half of 2021 Tollywood has been quite an eventful year for movie lovers. This happening despite the fact that theatres were shut for months is quite an impressive feat. A number of movies that had the fortune of releasing in theatres managed to be good hits. People missed the theatres and flocked to them at every chance they received. While the months of January to the first half of April were a great time for movies. The peak summer season i.e mid-April to June where a number of Tollywood biggies release every year turned out to be a dull one due to the Covid second wave. Let’s take a look at some of the memorable movies of the year and their impact on 2021 Tollywood.
January – Krack & Red
2021 Tollywood got off to an amazing start with Mass Maharaja’s Krack. The movie was a perfect comeback for both Tollywood as well as Ravi Teja. The action thriller was well received across all the centres and did a fabulous job in the long run. Krack which opened up with packed houses continued its dream run in Telugu states and emerged is now Ravi Teja’s career-best film.
Despite the lack of strong buzz, Ram’s Red also performed well at the box office and surprised all. A remake of Tamil film Thadam, Red performed well at the box office and collected a WW share of Rs 18.85 crores and emerged as the second hit of January.
February – Zombie Reddy, Uppena and Naandhi
February continued to be a good month for the film industry and continued the momentum of 2021 Tollywood. Prashanth Verma’s experimental zombie film Zombie Reddy entertained the viewers and emerged as the sleeper hit of the first half. Made on a shoestring budget, the movie collected a WW share of Rs 5.41 crores and marked a successful debut for Teja Sajja.
Uppena was undoubtedly the biggest surprise success of the year. While the movie was expected to do decently owing to great music and Sukumar’s involvement in production, nobody expected it to be the blockbuster it turned out to be. The movie was a sensational blockbuster and set a record of the highest collection of debut hero in Tollywood. It also became the first debutant movie to collect 50 crores at the box office. The movie had a return of investment of 200% making it the biggest hit of the year.
Naandhi was one more surprise hit of the year. Allari Naresh scored a successful film after almost 8 years with Naandhi. The movie started slow on its opening day and later with super strong word of mouth picked up very well with packed houses in many centers. The movie recovered well from every centre and also won Allari Naresh great critical acclaim. Naandhi will now be remade in Bollywood as well with Ajay Devgn buying the remake rights.
March- Jathi Ratnalu
Not even the makers of Jathi Ratnalu would have expected the movie to achieve the kind of success it did. The movie emerged as another blockbuster for 2021 Tollywood and recorded massive numbers in Telugu states as well as overseas. Jathi Ratnalu collected a world wide share of Rs 38crs and recovered its budget within no time. The film had an amazing start as well. Despite competition from other releases, the film had an excellent four-day weekend and it continued the same dominance on weekdays too.
The victory run of 2021 Tollywood stopped
2021 Tollywood would have continued its amazing run had the Covid second wave not played spoilsport. Pawan Kalyan’s much awaited Vakeel Saab released in April and had massive openings but with cases on rise and AP government’s orders stopped Vakeel Saab from being a bigger hit. The movie ended up as an above average fare at the box office. As a result of this Vakeel Saab had to be released on OTT on just 20th day of its release.
Similarly, a number of big ticket films like Acharya, Love Story, Khiladi, Akhanda etc. were supposed to release in the first half and pushed their release. The industry is now slowly getting back to its feet and with above mentioned movies along with RRR, Pushpa, Radhe Shyam set to hit the screens later this year, we sure are in for a great second half.
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