Megastar Chiranjeevi attempted to score a big pan-India hit with Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy (2019), but the film did not deliver the expected results. More recently, Balakrishna was expected to achieve better success with Akhanda 2, but his performance in the Hindi market turned out to be even weaker than Chiranjeevi’s.
Meanwhile, Tier-1 Telugu stars like Prabhas, Allu Arjun, NTR, and Ram Charan have already achieved massive numbers and strong success in Hindi. Next in line is Mahesh Babu, who is set for a huge launch with Varanasi, directed by Rajamouli. This generation of stars is steadily capturing the Bollywood market, while senior heroes like Chiranjeevi and Balakrishna continue to struggle.
Can Chiranjeevi and Balakrishna finally achieve their Bollywood dreams with Vishwambhara and NBK111?
Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy and Godfather were released in Hindi but ended up as failures, though they at least managed double-digit gross collections. In contrast, Balakrishna’s Akhanda 2 failed to even cross ₹1 crore gross in Hindi markets, marking a bigger disappointment than Chiranjeevi.
Looking ahead, Chiranjeevi’s upcoming film Vishwambhara and Balakrishna’s project with Gopichand Malineni are both targeting the Hindi audience once again. It remains to be seen whether they can finally achieve the results they have been aiming for.