Every Friday sees the release of multiple films, but only a few manage to gain significant publicity.
This weekend was no exception, with several small-budget films like Lyf (Love Your Father), Ram Gopal Varma’s Saaree, and 28 Degree Celsius hitting the screens.
However, it was two re-released films — Nandamuri Balakrishna’s classic Aditya 369 and Allu Arjun’s Arya 2 — that garnered more attention and hype.
Nandamuri Balakrishna even attended the pre-release event of Aditya 369. With his party currently in power in Andhra Pradesh and his recent career graph showing an upward trend, trade analysts expected the film to open strongly. However, the results were far from promising.
The collections were dismal, and even die-hard fans failed to fill 30–40 seats per show, turning it into a disappointing outing. Producer Sivalenka Krishna Prasad is reportedly unable to recover even the basic costs of the 4K restoration.
Allu Arjun’s Arya 2 fared slightly better. Riding on the massive pan-India success of Pushpa: The Rule and the rising popularity of director Sukumar, the film saw some traction in Hyderabad.
While it performed better than Aditya 369, it still fell short of the success achieved by other recent re-releases of major stars’ films.
As for Ram Gopal Varma’s Saaree, the film failed to even register a 10% opening, adding yet another flop to his growing list of recent disappointments.
On the OTT front, the much-anticipated Test, starring Nayanthara, R. Madhavan, and Siddharth, debuted this weekend on Netflix. Unfortunately, the film received poor reviews and was met with a lukewarm response from audiences.