Chiranjeevi's film shatters records, Balakrishna holds ground

This Sankranti has been huge in Tollywood as both the big films that released have become successful. Chiranjeevi’s comeback film Khaidi No. 150 is erasing all previous records with its first day collections, while Balakrishna’s film Gautamiputra Satakarni has become his career best.

Chiranjeevi’s film released first, in more than 2000 screens all over the world. “The film collected Rs 47.7 crore on the first day from all over the world, which is a record,” informs Allu Aravind about Chiranjeevi’s film, adding that in both the Telugu states, the film collected over Rs 30 crore. Speaking about the film’s success, he says, “More than the story, people wanted to see Chiranjeevi’s comeback and how he looked in the film.” The family has been celebrating.

Meanwhile, Balakrishna’s film released in nearly 800 to 900 screens and collected about Rs 20 crore the first day. The makers are expecting a steady collection in the long run. “The film was appreciated by all and the distributors are very happy. We are not bothered about the collection on the first day as we are focussing on the long run,” says Rajiv Reddy, the producer of Balakrishna’s film.

Gautamiputra Satakarni will be seen on more screens from the second day onwards. “We got only 15 screens in Tamil Nadu because of Vijay’s big release there, but with the demand, we are increasing the number of screens in Tamil Nadu,” says Rajeev Reddy.

The producer of Chiranjeevi’s film is expecting it to cross the Rs 100 crore mark easily by Sunday. The Telangana government has already given a tax exemption to Balakrishna’s film and the makers are expecting the same from the AP government by Saturday. The coming few days are holidays and both these films are expecting huge turnouts.

RGV’s offensive unabated
The director continues to attack Chiranjeevi and his film Ram Gopal Varma continued his attack on Chiranjeevi and his film. After the release of Gautamiputra Satakarni, RGV tweeted that the film took Tollywood forward by 10 years while borrowed content (Chiru’s film is a remake of Tamil film Katthi) took Telugu cinema back by 10 years.

“With borrowed story one film took Tollywood 10 years back and GPSK took it 10 years forward with a 2000 year old original story,”(sic) said RGV on his Twitter.
He appreciated director Krish and actor Balakrishna. “Salute to @DirKrish n Balayya for pushing telugu cinema pride to skies with original content instead of bringing down with borrowed content.”, (sic) tweeted RGV.