Sankranthi 2025 Box Office: Daaku Maharaaj, Sankranthiki Vasthunnam and more lead Tollywood’s festive race

Sankranthi 2025 brought several major releases to Telugu cinema, with mixed responses at the box office. While one film saw huge success, others faced challenges and lukewarm reception.

Sankranthi is one of the most profitable business seasons for the Telugu film industry. Thus, the industry always looks forward to the Pongal releases every year. Generally, we have at least three festival releases every Sankranthi and the number may go up to 5-6 sometimes. This year, we had three Pongal releases in Telugu, Ram Charan's Game Changer, Balakrishna's Daaku Maharaaj and Venkatesh's Sankranthiki Vasthunnam.

Game Changer was the most expensive film of all and had a pan-India release. Daaku Maharaaj promised to be yet another Balayya-sque commercial entertainer before the release whereas Sankranthiki Vasthunnam promised to be on the lines of Venkatesh and director Anil Ravipudi's earlier films, F2 and F3.

Game Changer

The first film to hit the screens this festive season was Game Changer. This Shankar directorial was released on January 10. For some reason, Game Changer lacked the buzz needed for a pan-India film right from the beginning. Be it the generic storyline or the unattractive audio album and the lack of huge promotions, the film failed to get a huge pre-release buzz. As a result, it opened on a relatively dull note compared to the stardom of Ram Charan. The response after the release was also weak due to the routine plot and ineffective narration. Many people felt that Shankar wasted hundreds of crores on a story that could have been done in less than 50 crores. As Game Changer lacked any engaging factor, the film ended up as a disaster.

Daaku Maharaaj

Balayya came second with his Daaku Maharaaj, which hit the theatres on January 12. Directed by Bobby Kolli, this movie had a relatively low buzz before its release. But the film got a decent talk after its release. Especially, the cinematography and background score were praised by many. These both departments made Daaku Maharaaj a technically superior film among all Pongal releases. Despite getting positive talk and becoming Balayya's career-highest grosser, Daaku Maharaaj is yet to break even in many areas. While high ticket rates in Andhra Pradesh were one of the reasons behind it, the storm created by Sankranthiki Vasthunnam is another reason.

Sankranthiki Vasthunnam was the last one to arrive in theatres. It hit the screens on January 14. Unique promotions through reels and super hit songs gave a positive pre-release buzz to the movie. Anil Ravipudi's track record and Venkatesh's fame with family films added more expectations. Thus, the movie opened on a huge note at the box office. The family-oriented subject and an out-and-out comedy treatment from the beginning to the end worked big for the film. It has been a long time since audiences enjoyed such commercial family comedy dramas and thus, they flocked into theatres to watch Sankranthiki Vasthunnam. As a result, it became the highest grosser in Venkatesh's career and also the winner of this Pongal race by collecting nearly 250 crore gross. 

On the whole, it was a lukewarm Pongal for Tollywood while one film became a blockbuster, one turned out to be a hit and one ended up as a disaster. It has to be seen how the trade continues in the industry with many big films lined up for release in the coming months.