The race for Varanasi’s Telugu states rights is heating up fast, with Dil Raju-Asian Collaboration, Mythri Movies, and Sithara Entertainments all competing for it, and the offers on the table have already crossed ₹275 Cr.
To put that in perspective, the previous biggest Telugu states business ever belonged to RRR, at around ₹225 Cr. The current offers for Varanasi are already sitting more than ₹50 Cr above that mark, and the bidding hasn’t even settled yet.
That kind of number makes sense once you look at what Varanasi actually is. This is the Rajamouli and Mahesh Babu combination, mounted on a massive budget, shot in the true 1.43:1 IMAX format, a first for Indian cinema, and set for an April 2027 release. Three of the biggest names in Telugu distribution fighting over it, and pushing the price past a record that had stood since RRR, is exactly the kind of reaction a project on this scale was always going to draw.
With Varanasi already being called the biggest film Tollywood has ever produced, this rights race looks like it’s just getting started, and ₹275 Cr may not be where it stops.
