It’s a neck-and-neck competition at BO

Mahesh Babu and Allu Arjun had some bad moments before the Sankranti festival over the release dates of their films, till the Producers’ Guild stepped in to resolve the issue, and Mahesh Babu’s Sarileru Neekevvaru released a day before Allu Arjun’s Ala Vaikuntapuramlo. But it now looks like both the films are doing well, though Ala Vaikuntapuramlo seems likely to have an edge over Mahesh Babu’s film in the long run.

Releasing his film a day before Ala Vaikuntapuramlo proved to be a big advantage for Mahesh Babu as his film collected a huge revenue on the opening day. Day 2 saw Allu Arjun’s film release, so collections for Sarileru Neekevvaru were affected. And now news is, according to trade experts, Allu Arjun’s film is doing better than Mahesh Babu’s.

Sarileru Neekevvaru’s pre-business was nearly `100 crore and the first two days of collections amounted to around `56 crore.While Allu Arjun’s film’s pre-business was around `85 core, the best in the actor’s career, the film collected nearly `25 crore on the first day itself. It is running to packed houses. The songs are huge hits and, taking into account director Trivikram’s popularity, it is tipped to be the best in Allu Arjun’s career so far, being likely to catapult him into the `100 crore club.

However, the Tollywood industry is very happy that two big films released during Sankranti, have had excellent openings. “It’s a good Sankranti for the TFI as both films are doing well; Allu Arjun’s film slightly better than Mahesh Babu’s. Both films will break even and both may do more than `200 crore business during the holidays,” said Suresh Babu, an exhibitor and distributor.