A lot was expected from the month of May in terms of box office hits. After a dismal April, which had colossal flops like Agent and Shaakuntalam, the film industry desperately needed some hits to sail through. The month started with Allari Naresh’s Ugram and Gopichand’s Ramabanam. Ugram received a better response from the critics and audience as compared to the disastrous Ramabanam. But both films failed to create any mark.
Naga Chaitanya was banking heavily on Venkat Prabhu’s action thriller Custody. But the film turned out to be an epic disaster at the box office. The poor writing, the overstretched action sequences, and the predictable twists marred the performance of Custody at the box office. The Akkineni’s wait for a box office hit continues
Nandini Reddy’s Anni Manchi Sakunamule turned out to be another failure. Despite being sincere, the slow narration and the outdated vibe of a pre-pandemic film killed its box office prospects. The film registered another flop in the career of Santosh Sobhan, who is desperately trying to find a foothold in the Telugu industry.
Bichagadu 2 turned out to be the unexpected savior of the Telugu industry. This Tamil-dubbed film exceeded expectations at the box office and became a hit. Despite the film’s below-par content and muddled narration, the film did well due to the brand value and recall factor of the first part, which did tremendously well in B and C centers.
Even small-budget movies like Mem Famous and Malli Pelli made more news off-screen than on-screen.
On the whole, the month of May turned out to be a disappointment for the Telugu film industry. The summer releases flopped miserably and brought the distribution and exhibition network a major disappointment.
