After 16 years, Prabhas and Kajal Aggarwal’s cult romantic comedy Darling is back on the big screen, and the madness is unreal. The 4K remastered version hit theatres on April 23, 2026, with special overseas shows starting April 21-22, and fans are treating it like a brand new Prabhas film. Directed by A. Karunakaran and produced by Sri Venkateswara Cine Chitra, the 2010 blockbuster was a turning point in Prabhas’s career before Baahubali made him a pan-India star.
The re-release was announced by Kedar Films to mark the film’s 16th anniversary, and #Darling4K started trending instantly as fans shared clips of theatres playing the film and recreating the snowy romance scenes. The craze was clear from day one of advance bookings. Darling sold nearly 40K tickets on BookMyShow within the first 24 hours, crossing the pre-sales of Race Gurram, Orange, and the second re-release of Businessman.
Before release, advance bookings had touched ₹2.65 Cr in India with 1,95,518 tickets sold across 1,267 shows. Hyderabad alone contributed ₹8.32L gross with 67.2% occupancy, proving how strong the nostalgia is in Telugu states. Trade circles set a break-even target of ₹1.4 Cr, one of the highest ever for a Telugu re-release, showing huge distributor confidence. On premiere day, April 22, the film did ₹20.41L India-tracked gross from just 29 shows with 71% occupancy and 10 housefulls. Day 1 advance was tracking ₹3.27 Cr across 1,514 shows by April 22. Overseas too, the response was solid with around $18K reported from USA and Australia pre-sales.
The main reasons behind Darling craze is, First, the Prabhas-Kajal chemistry still feels fresh, and people want to relive that pre-Baahubali charm. Second, G.V. Prakash Kumar’s soundtrack, “Neeve Neeve”, “Inka Edo”,.is evergreen and hits different in theatres with 4K visuals and upgraded sound. Third, zero big competition in the release window gave it a clean run. The film’s comedy, family vibe, and Prabhas’s casual stylish look that set trends in 2010 are all adding to the repeat value. Fans planned special shows, banners, and celebrations like a new release.