While they released as competitors this Sankranti, along with Chiranjeevi’s Khaidi No 150, the small screen battle between Gautamiputra Satakarni and Sathamanam Bhavathi has a clear winner. Both the films were featured on primetime television during Ugadi, and the Sharwanand-starrer Shatamanam... emerged as the clear winner. While GPSK was premiered on the festival day, the other film was featured a couple of days earlier, on March 26, a Sunday.
It was expected that the Balakrishna film will register high TRP’s owing to its performance at the box office. However, it registered a meagre 5.5, a low number for a Telugu film. Meanwhile, Shatamanam... registered record TRPs of 15.5!
“The channel was hoping to cash in on the festive fervour when they premiered the film on TV. And so, these TRPs are quite a mind boggler. Considering the reviews and response the film got, they were expecting a very good performance during the premiere. But they are mighty disappointed,” shares a source.
