Sundeep Kishan’s Mazaka was released in theaters worldwide for this Maha Shivaratri. Despite getting positive reviews from audiences and critics, the film failed to achieve success at the box office. Now, the latest news is that the Mazaka OTT streaming date is out.
Sundeep Kishan’s Mazaka on OTT from this Weekend
Directed by Trinadharao Nakkina, the family entertainer had paid premieres before the release day, and the feedback was also decent. However, even with the advantage of the Maha Shivaratri holiday, the film failed to put at least decent numbers at the box office.
A few days ago, there were rumors about the film’s early digital premiere. Now, Mazaka’s OTT streaming date is out, and the film will be available for streaming online from March 28th on ZEE5. ZEE Group has acquired the satellite and digital rights of the movie.
Mazaka stars Sundeep Kishan, Rao Ramesh, Ritu Varma, and Anshu in crucial roles. Bheems Cecireleo composed the film’s music. Let’s hope that the film receives a good response upon its OTT release.
Robinhood is a very crucial film in Nithin’s career, as after Bheeshma he continually scored box office failures, and the team did very aggressive promotions to bring audiences to the theaters. The recent release trailer also received a good response. Robinhood budget, censor, and business details are out now.
The main concern for the film is the release date, as it faces tough competition from a blockbuster sequel, MAD Square, which is arriving on the same day. The film was made on a staggering budget of 70 Cr. The team initially planned for between 50 and 55 Cr.
But the shooting took longer than expected, and some reshootings and Warner’s addition made the budget go beyond 70 Cr. Nithin’s Robinhood budget, censor, and business details are out, and the movie was censored with a U/A rating and a runtime of 156 minutes and 49 seconds. This is a normal runtime for commercial films.
Robinhood’s Trailer Works: Can the Film Recover the Business?
Nithin – Sreeleela Robinhood Trailer
Coming to the business, the competition affected the film a lot, and distributors also had a lot of negotiations with the producers. In the Andhra area, the ratio was expected to be around 15 Cr for the budget, but it went down to 12 Cr, and now the final ratio is said to be in the range of 10 Cr.
Robinhood’s ceded business is valued at approx. 3.5 Cr, while the producers are releasing the film on their own in Nizam. Altogether, the theatrical business of the film is valued at 26 Cr – 27 Cr. The non-theatrical rights have been bought by Zee Group.
The producers are at a risk with this business as the film needs to do big numbers. Venky Kudmula’s directorial needs to collect a theatrical share of around 40 Cr to become a safe venture for producers.
Bollywood’s upcoming biggies are directed by South Indian directors. One of those films, Sikandar, stars Salman Khan and is directed by Tamil director Murugadoss, and the second one is Sunny Deol’s Jaat, directed by Telugu director Gopichand Malineni. As far as the trailer’s impact is concerned, Gopichand Malineni outshines Murugadoss with the JAAT trailer.
Sikandar’s Trailer Falls Flat Before JAAT’s Trailer
Sikandar is all set to be released in theaters worldwide on 30th March, whereas JAAT will be released on April 10th. Both films’ trailers are out now, and the Sunny Deol starrer is getting a good response, whereas Sikandar is receiving a mixed and below-par response from audiences.
Gopichand Malineni’s JAAT Trailer Promises a Mass Feast
Jaat’s trailer is packed with heavy mass action elements, and the team also added a tag of Mass Feast, and it looks like a perfect tag. Whereas Sikandar’s trailer seems ineffective, and the dialogue sync is also poor.
Salman Khan’s Sikandar Trailer
Many commented that Salman’s Sikandar trailer tried in a way to match SRK-Atlee’s Jawan. However, except for one or two dialogues, Sikandar’s trailer seemed like an old wine in a new bottle.
Sunny Deol – Gopichand Malineni’s JAAT Trailer
Even Sunny Deol’s JAAT also has a routine plot of a village/place suffering because of a villain’s acts and the hero coming out of some other place and thrashing the goons. But, the presentation of the trailer hinted that the film will be a racy action entertainer with a lot of action and dialogue-baazi.
JAAT Looks to Outshine Sikandar at the Box Office
So as of now, Gopichand Malineni outshines Murugadoss with the JAAT trailer. We need to wait and see who will win in this box office battle. Salman Khan is in a tough phase with failures, and it has some impact on Sikandar along with its promotional content getting a mixed response.
But Salman’s stardom can provide a good opening for the film, and it is also getting released on Sunday, which marks the EID festival weekend, promising a good opening. Sunny Deol made a massive comeback with Gadar 2, which will definitely help the opening of JAAT.
Tollywood is currently facing a major disparity in government-mandated ticket prices between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. In Telangana, the government-fixed rates stand at ₹295 for multiplexes and ₹175 for single screens. However, in Andhra Pradesh, the rates are significantly lower—₹177 for multiplexes and ₹147 for single screens.
While the industry in Telangana has comfortably adapted to the existing GO pricing, with only Tier-1 and pan-India films requesting hikes, the situation in Andhra Pradesh is different. Several recent films, including the three Sankranti releases, ‘Thandel’, ‘Robinhood’, and ‘Mad Square’, have sought ticket price hikes. Unlike before, approvals for these hikes are now being granted more easily.
However, frequent price hikes can create a negative perception among audiences, especially in the age of OTT platforms. Many viewers feel discouraged when they see a ticket price increase, affecting a film’s box office potential. Instead of applying for hikes on a film-to-film basis, Tollywood should engage in discussions with the Andhra Pradesh government to establish a revised GO with sustainable ticket rates.
A proposed increase of ₹50 for single screens and ₹75 for multiplexes over the current GO pricing would align with the industry’s needs. This would ensure fair pricing while maintaining audience trust. By publicizing that films are releasing at “GO-approved prices with no hikes,” the industry can eliminate the negative sentiment associated with frequent price changes, ultimately benefiting both filmmakers and moviegoers.
This weekend is a big weekend for Indian cinema. From Tollywood Mad Square, Robinhood is getting released, and from Kollywood, Veera Dheera Sooran. Empuraan from Mollywood and Sikandar from Bollywood are also releasing on the same weekend. Empuraan’s runtime details are out now.
Mohanlal’s Empuraan is carrying record advances and the biggest numbers. The opening day advance sales are already near the 45 Cr mark worldwide, and for the weekend it is near the 65 Cr range.
The movie has been censored with UA with a runtime of 180 minutes. Now, Mohanlal’s Empuraan’s runtime details are out, with the exact length of the 1st half and the second half. The film’s first half will be 98 minutes, and the second half will be 82 minutes.
So, the first half will have a bigger runtime than the 2nd half. The team hopes that this film will work very well at the pan-India level in all languages, and if it works, then part 3 will be made on a much bigger scale.
Actress Pooja Hegde has recently faced continuous flops, and she hopes to make a comeback with Suriya’s Retro, which is getting released on May 1st. In a recent interview, the actress said that some meme pages continuously targeted her with many trolls, and it got very big. Pooja Hegde said that some PR teams are spending lakhs to troll her.
Pooja Hegde talks about PR Teams trolling her
“My family was bothered at first, but later we took it as a compliment that, as we are above, they are trying to pull us down,” she said. “I found out that some people were spending a lot of money just to make fun of me. I instructed my team to contact the meme pages to check what was going on. They replied, ‘This is the amount we are being paid. If you want to put an end to it or fight back, this is what it will cost.”
These kinds of statements are coming from a lot of industry people. Recently many have been saying that in industry there is negative PR, with some spending lakhs of rupees to bring others down, but none of them have revealed the names.
PR Blame Game is the New Thing in The Film Industry
Definitely, these kinds of things will be happening in the film industry, but not all the trolls are made by PR. There will be both praise and trolls from meme pages and netizens as well. If something works, then the same people will praise actresses/actors through their posts on social media, and if something does not work, then they will turn into trolls.
Pooja Hegde said that some PR teams are spending lakhs to troll her. However, instead of blaming PR, revealing the names behind those trolls could have been better. Because if someone is really doing it, they will stop it.
By making such statements, even people will doubt who will spend lakhs of amounts to bring Pooja Hegde down and why they are trying to bring down only her.
Leo created a benchmark with a sensation of double digit opening in Kerala with 12 Cr collection. By doing so, this Vijay film broke the previous biggest opening by a huge margin. When Allu Arjun’s Pushpa 2 released late last year, everyone expected this record to be rewritten.
One of the main reasons for this expectation was Bunny’s huge fan following in Kerala and the records broken by previous big-ticket sequels like Baahubali 2 and KGF 2. Even the distributors in a press meet officially said that they were targeting Leo opening day record.
Unfortunately, Puhspa 2 failed to work in Kerala in terms of both opening and full. It was a huge disappointment and the film worked in all markets excluding Kerala. Pushpa 2 ended up being a disaster in Kerala.
Now there are high expectations on Mohanlal starrer Empuraan to break Leo opening record. The film opening day pre sales have already crossed 10 Cr.
This is the 1st ever film to have double digit pre sales in Kerala and with fan shows, the film day 1 gross is more than 11 Cr. By the end of the day today, Empuraan will cross Leo opening day which is a sensational achievement. Worldwide, Emupraan has registered a record pre sales of 45 Cr for opening day itself.
L2: Empuraan starring Mohanlal is gearing up for release on 27th March worldwide. The film is riding greatly with phenomenal advance bookings and is also set to create a record opening. But, the film’s prospects have been kept very low in the promotional activities. Mohanlal and Prithviraj never revealed the budget until which was leaked by Dil Raju as 150 crores.
The Actual budget of the film has now been revealed as 180 crores officially by the Gokulam Movies Producer, Gopalan. He is also the prime reason for the film’s release on time as L2: Empuraan had to deal with financial hurdles. Lyca Productions and Aashirwad Cinemas were the film’s production houses before the release plan, and an issue arose. Gokulam Movies then stepped in and settled the issue with Lyca Productions making way for L2: Empuraan’s release.
The film that had cost 180 crores should have never been halted. This is also the first IMAX film in Malayalam Cinema history. The Producer said that they had approached me to be a part of the Production. “How could I refuse when Mohanlal was in trouble? It was Mohanlal who insisted that I come on board. Mohanlal was the first person to call me to help resolve the crisis followed by Antony Perumbavoor. That’s why I decided to take on this responsibility,” he added.
This 180 crores is also without the remunerations of Mohanlal and Prithviraj. The bookings are phenomenal for the opening day and the whole weekend. For the weekend, it is estimated that the advances are close to 60 crores and it’s already become the highest grosser of this year for Mollywood with these advance sales. For the opening day, the advances are in the range of 40 crores.
On the evening of 24 March, 2025, the fans of Thalapathy Vijay were in for happy and sad news. The release date of their favorite star’s last film was announced earlier. The interesting news is that Vijay will be clashing with Sivakarthikeyan on Pongal 2026.
Earlier, the makers of Jana Nayagan announced that the film will be released in theaters worldwide on January 9, 2026. Siva Karthikeyan’s mega-budget film Parasakthi is also getting released on Pongal 2026, though there is no official confirmation till now.
Pongal 2026 Marks the Clash of Vijay – Sivakarthikeyan
The announcement of Jana Nayagan’s release date has confirmed that Vijay will be clashing with Sivakarthikeyan on Pongal 2026. SK scored his career-best hit with Amaran last October, and there will be a huge hype for his next film, as it is directed by Sudha Kongara.
Vijay’s Jana Nayagan Plot and Cast/Crew Details:
There are rumors that Jana Nayagan is a remake of Bhagavanth Kesari, directed by Anil Ravipudi. Bobby Deol and Pooja Hegde appear in the cast, joined by Gautham Vasudev Menon, Prakash Raj, Narain, Priyamani, Mamitha Baiju, Monisha Blessy, and Varalaxmi Sarathkumar in significant roles. The film’s music will be composed by Anirudh Ravichander.
This film will be Vijay’s last as he prepares to contest the 2026 Tamil Nadu elections with his party, TVK. During a February rally, he affirmed that his 69th film marks the end of his acting career while replying to critics.
Sivaakarthikeyan’s Parasakthi Plot and Cast/Crew Details:
Sudha Kongara’s Parasakthi is said to be based on anti-Hindi imposition, and it mainly deals with an issue between students and a powerful politician. The film’s title teaser received a good response from the audiences.
Ravi Mohan plays the politician’s role, while Atharvaa and Sreeleela appear as other crucial characters alongside Sivakarthikeyan in the lead role. Dawn Pictures is backing the film, and GV Prakash Kumar is the film’s music composer.
Venkatesh’s Sankranthiki Vasthunam’s OTT and Television rights have turned out to be a big jackpot for Zee Group. Out of the three Sankranthi releases that include Game Changer and Daaku Maharaj, it was this Anil Ravipudi project that turned out to be a winning blockbuster in Sankranthi race. Game Changer signed with Prime Video and Daaku Maharaaj signed the digital deal with Netflix.
Zee Group signed Sankranthiki Vasthunam way before its release for a pretty sweet deal and decided to stream the film simultaneously for its OTT and Television premiere. The film has done exceptionally well on both mediums.
The comedy entertainer has now crosseed 400 Million streaming minutes in Zee 5 , making it one of the most watched film in Zee 5 already. It earlier surpassed other Tollywood blockbusters like RRR and Hanuman during its initial week.
This Venkatesh, Aishwarya Rajesh, and Meenakshi Chaudhary starrer is also getting a good response from other languages’ audiences, too. Normally, Anil Ravipudi films receive some criticism after OTT release. But this film is getting a very good response on OTT.
After this film, Anil Ravipudi and Venkatesh will join again for Malli Sankranthiki Vasthunam next year. The film will be released on 2027 Sankranthi, and it will have the same cast and crew as its first part
