This year has been fairly eventful for Telugu cinema with some never before achievements in the history and some setbacks. Let’s first see how the month performance of Telugu cinema has been - hits, flops, records and so on.

January - Above average month

The year started off with some good openings for Venkatesh – Pawan Kalyan starrer ‘Gopala Gopala’. The movie has been talk of the town due to the multi starrer combination and Pawan Kalyan playing as God has generated much hype. On the contrary, though the movie had some good openings, it failed to pick up the speed and ended to be an above average grosser.
Another big budget movie released was a dubbed version of Shankar’s “I” which was a dud at the box office. A silent hit turned out to be Raghuvaran B.Tech (a tamil dubbed Dhanush’s movie)

A straight Telugu film which turned out to be an average grosser was Kalyan Ram’s Pataas.

February - Blockbuster month

After couple of above average and average films during January, Jr.NTR-Puri Jagan’s Temper has ruled the box office with an instant hit talk and loads of appreciations showering NTR for his performance.

Another silent hit was Sharwanand’s Malli Malli Idi Rani Roju attracting only a certain part of the audience

March - June - Average to Non-eventful months

With only Trivikram-Bunny’s S/O Sathyamurthy, Mani Rathnam’s Ok Bangaram being above average grossers during this time, fairly less movies were average grossers; Nikhil’s ‘Surya Vs Surya’, Nani’s ‘Yevade Subramanyam’. Only other movie to have a decent run in theatres was Sumanth Ashwin’s ‘Kerintha’.

Naga Chaitanya’s Dochay released in the same month turned out to be a dud

Some big names have had their movies released in the month of May. Kamal Hasan’s Uttama Villain, Balakrishna’s Lion, Naga Chaitanya’s ‘Dochay’, Ram’s Pandaga Chesko, Surya’s Rakshasudu, Puri Jagan’s ‘Jyothilakshmi’, Nara Rohit’s ‘Asura’, Rajendra Prasad’s Dagudu mutha dandakor, Lawrence’s Ganga. All have been duds though some had push from the criticis, yet failed to attract the audience.

Puri Jagan’s son was launched with Andhra Pori this month which failed to launch Akash’s career with a bang.

July - Baahubali Era - The Beginning

No other film needed to be released this whole month with Baahubali dominating all the theatres running with full house every show. Audience were in awe with the movie and undoubtedly the movie set a new benchmark for Indian cinema, box office and movie making.

There were even talks about no other movie would be a hit for at least the next six months with audience expecting Bahubali kind of magic in every other movie which would be released.

August - Rich Hit

With doubts raising if any big movie released in the immediate months after Bahubali might end up being a dud, Mahesh-Koratala’s Srimanthudu has dared to release their movie in August and have earned a huge hit. The movie turned to be the second biggest grosser of the year only after Bahubali and has created industry records with just the charm of Mahesh and nothing else. The movie had a novel idea and could have been made in a much better way, but as RGV quoted a famous cinematographer’s line ‘There's no greater visual than a charming actor performing in a close up’ and Mahesh is proof of that. With many close up’s of Mahesh in the movie, extreme care taken on Mahesh’s costumes and looks.. The movie is bound to be a hit!!

Though Kick 2 had lot of expectations post the hit combination of Ravi Teja and Surender Reddy, with the director running high with Race Gurram, the movie failed to kick off due to inconsistencies in the script and not much of a care taken with the movie length.

Cinema Chupistha Maava got some good reviews from the critics and has become a silent multiplex hit too.

September - Already started on a hit note

An instant hit registered on the first Friday of the month was Maruthi-Nani’s ‘Bhale Bhale Magadivoi’. The movie garnered rave reviews for Nani’s acting and the direction of Maruthi and the movie is running with full house everywhere and has a repeat audience capability with its humor quotient.

Another film which is slowly picking up is Deva Katta-Vishnu Manchu’s ‘Dynamite’. The movie started with a mixed response but is slowly picking up with talks about good action sequences.

Road Ahead for 2015..

With a blockbuster hit every month being registered post Bahubali, we might even expect to see more hits coming our way in rest of the year as lot of big names have lined up for releases. Some movies to watch out for which already have got hit talks are Nagarjuna’s ‘Soggade Chinni Nayana’, Sampath Nandi-Ravi Teja’s ‘Bengal Tiger’, Sharwanand’s ‘Emito ee Maya’, Harish Shankar-Sai Dharam Tej’s ‘Subramanyam for Sale’, Krish-Varun Tej’s ‘Kanche’, Ram’s ‘Shivam’, Srinu Vaitla-Ram Charan’s ‘Bruce Lee’, Vinayak-Akhil’s ‘Akhil’, Gunasekhar-Anushka’s ‘Rudramadevi’ and Balakrishna’s ‘Dictator’.

Some more movies to watch out for Teja’s ‘Hora Hori’, Kalyanram’s ‘Sher’, RGV’s ‘Attack’ and ‘Patta Pagalu’, Puri Jagan-Varun Tej’s ‘Loafer’,  Aadhi’s ‘Garam’, Sunil’s ‘Krishnashtami’, Nikhil’s ‘Shankarabharanam’, Anushka’s ‘Size Zero’, Naga Chaitanya’s ‘Sahasam Swasaga Sagipo’ and Nithin’s ‘Courier Boy Kalyan’.

For Sankranthi 2016, stage is already set for Mahesh’s ‘Brahmotsavam’, Pawan Kalyan’s ‘Sardar Gabbar Singh’ & NTR’s ‘Nannaku Prematho’.

All in all.. Post Bahubali, there are lot of good feelers on possible blockbusters coming our way every month with so many big movies lined up for rest of the year and huge plans for rest of the year. Good days for the industry? Let’s hope for the best!

- Bharath