Sankranti festival becoming colorless on screen

Sankranti losing charm in Tollywood. Sankranti happens to be the most popular festival in two Telugu states Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and the filmmakers and top stars try to release  their films during this festival to score blockbusters.

However, of late, Sankranti festival is becoming colorless on screen and is losing charm in Tollywood. Films like ‘Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo’, ‘Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu’ and ‘Shatamanam Bhavati’ during 2000-2010 captured the imagination of all. With Okkadu redefining filmmaking and more recently HanuMan showing the power of first Telugu superhero film.

But now with the makers packing Sankranti to 5-6 or 4-5 films, it is showing their insecurity. Trade analyst Ramesh Bala succinctly says: “Five to six will be announced but finally, only three to four will release and it won't be six. Sometimes even four may be more, with other movies from other languages also. Sankranti is a bigger festival with a longer holiday season, it can certainly accommodate three to four.”

Not all films releasing during Sankranti will be a hit and it was proven by Guntur Karam and Saindhav while HanuMan performed well. Ramesh Bala reinforces this shift: “The festival gives an opening – holidays and people. If there are three or four days of holidays, people go and watch a movie. But if the content is good, only then will they go beyond the holidays to watch it.” Journalist and analyst Nagendra Kumar also states that big films no longer command automatic returns. In his words: “Hugeness or heaviness in the content honed by high-voltage fan cry did not help the much-hyped films. Films with high profile and exuberant expenditure, and with routine formula, are not being entertained by masses.”

Nagendra Kumar shares "This is evident from the 2025 season as well. Ram Charan’s ‘Game Changer’, despite massive hype, “had a very hard blow to suffer disastrous losses”, while ‘Daaku Maharaj’ “just escaped with a moderate mouth talk.” Only Venkatesh’s ‘Sankranthiki Vasthunnam’, made on a more reasonable budget, tasted “a stupendous success”

The upcoming Sankranti 2026 will witness huge competition between . Chiranjeevi and Anil Ravipudi’s ‘Mana Shankaravaraprasad Garu’, with Venkatesh in an extended cameo, is expected to lead the season. Ravi Teja’s ‘Bhartha Mahasayulaku Vignyapthi’, Naveen Polishetty’s ‘Anaganaga Oka Raju’ and Sharwanand’s ‘Nari Nari Naduma Murari’ all crowd the same emotional-comedy-family turf.

Prabhas The Raja Saab is releasing one week earlier on 9 Jan 2026. Ramesh Bala warns: “Two films per genre can survive. If (there are) more than two (films) in the same genre, they will eat into each other's pie.” Tamil titles add further pressure. Bala notes: “With movies from other languages also (lined up), sometimes even four may be more.” Vijay’s ‘Jana Nayagan’ and ‘Parasakthi’ may not topple Telugu biggies, but they absorb a significant multiplex share.

 Bala explains: “February and March are generally considered slow months. Then they have to wait for Ugadi or something or April. The industry does not work in an organised way. Each individual producer, when he completes a movie because of his interest rate on the borrowing, tends to release it as early as they can or (during) the next festival.”

Small and medium budget films bear the burnt. Nagendra Kumar shares “Small and medium-budgeted films will never gain an advantage in the rush of high-budgeted films. If the big films tank at the box office, then the smaller films take the lead. This has been proved right continuously.” But this is not sustainable, and he adds that the upcoming Sankranthi will be “a bitter struggle to sustain in theatres” for smaller titles unless they carry “outstanding and invincible content.”Ramesh Bala says, “Industry as a team, as a forum, the association has to sit together, they plan festival releases, it will be better for the whole industry.”