Chiranjeevi’s Waltair Veerayya and Balakrishna’s Veera Simha Reddy released this Sankranthi. They’re funded by the same production house, released in the US by the same distributor, and in fact have the same heroine as well.
But, there was a whole narrative against Chiranjeevi’s film that was, many say, is spun in motion by a dominated non profit telugu organization.
There was a lot of lobbying going into the Sankranthi releases. Veera Simha Reddy got never before openings in the USA, while there was a narrative to project Waltair Veerayya as the weaker film.
Veera Simha Reddy got $700K from premieres and dropped 90% to make only $70k on first day. A community booked multiple theaters to spike the premieres tally and keep it above Veerayya. This resulted in good premieres number, but the collections from next day tell the full story.
Veerayya, on the other hand had a $639K premiere and followed with $300K first day. This is the real meaning of holding momentum and organic hype.
Even in India, after a strong start, Veera Simha Reddy clocked 20% occupancies in many areas on second day while Waltair Veerayya is registering excellent advances for second day.
In terms of market and business, there’s no comparison between Chiru and Balayya. Chiru gave a Rs 100 crore film with his comeback film, Khaidi 150, and Balayya is yet to come even close to that. Chiru’s films get bigger business as well.
But there’s this big community batch that fought for Veera Simha Reddy and tried to belittle Waltair Veerayya. But Veerayya ended up holding very well in every area while Veera Simha Reddy crashed like a pack of cards.