Sankranti 2025 just wrapped up with Venkatesh's film Sankranthiki Vasthunnam emerging as the season's biggest hit, grossing more than ₹250 crores worldwide.
However, Tollywood has already shifted focus to Sankranti 2026. The massive box office numbers this festival season has generated have reinforced its status as the most lucrative period for Telugu cinema.
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The NTR-Prashanth Neel film has already been locked for January 9, 2026. Now, Chiranjeevi-Anil Ravipudi's film has officially joined the race. Producer Sahu Garapati confirmed that the movie is being planned as a Sankranti release. However, festival line-ups always keep changing, and more films will inevitably enter the competition.
Anil Ravipudi has a strong Sankranti track record, having scored a big hit this year. His film F2 was also a huge hit during Sankranti 2019. The festival has become a sentiment for him.
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On the other hand, Chiranjeevi has been absent from Sankranti since 2023. He narrowly missed out this year as Vishwambhara got postponed. However, this time, the makers seem determined not to let that happen again in 2026.
But the real question is whether NTR-Neel's film can be ready in time. Given the scale of Neel's projects and the timeline needed for NTR, one year may not be enough.
Meanwhile, for Anil Ravipudi, five months is more than sufficient to wrap up his film.
So, while Chiru's movie looks like a sure-shot Sankranti release, doubts remain about NTR's big-budget action epic making it on time.
So, the chances of the much-hyped Sankranthi clash between Chiranjeevi and NTR are only 50-50.