NTR is enjoying the peak phase of his career, building on consistent success over the last decade. With RRR, his craze went pan-India, and he proved what a big star he is with Devara. Devara had a massive opening, and even though it received mixed WOM (word-of-mouth), the film collected over ₹400 Cr gross and performed well in Hindi too. NTR also has many big-budget films in the pipeline.
However, he suddenly signed War 2, which everyone considered a huge risk. The YRF Spy series wasn’t strong in content, audiences had started disconnecting from it, and it was expected not to work well for Telugu audiences. Fans thought that War 2 would be strong on content, and that NTR was targeting Hindi audiences with action and style.
As expected War 2 is just a regular spy series film, and it was even the weakest in that series. Story-wise and performance-wise, neither Hrithik nor NTR had much to deliver. The film recorded the lowest opening of NTR’s career in Telugu—something unprecedented. The Telugu version collecting even ₹100 Cr gross seemed impossible, showing how poorly the movie performed with Telugu audiences. The Hindi version also underperformed, and trade experts expected it wouldn’t generate much after the weekend, closing under Tiger 3 on the Hindi belt.
This shows that NTR didn’t achieve the intended results, and he likely doesn’t need to target Hindi audiences separately with a Bollywood-style film, as they are already enjoying South commercial films. NTR still has Dragon in hand, which will likely perform well in Hindi. Whatever the motive behind War 2, it was clearly a misstep.
The same applies to Nagarjuna. He still has a strong market but needs to choose the right films and combinations, even if it’s late, like Venkatesh is doing now. Alternatively, he can select roles on par with leading actors, like Aravind Swamy did in Dhruva. Fans and audiences are still shocked by what Nagarjuna did across seven narrations and how he convinced everyone with the Simon character.
Although Nagarjuna may not have the market strength he once had, it hasn’t completely faded. He is far ahead of actors like Jagapati Babu and Srikanth and can still do what Venkatesh is doing now, making films like Manam, Oopri, or Soggade Chinni Nayana.
NTR and Nagarjuna took the biggest career mistakes at the same time, and the results are evident. Hopefully, this will serve as a significant lesson for them.
