Sankranti 2022 in Telugu cinema: Will it be wise for Bangarraju to join the box office race with RRR, Radhe Shyam and Bheemla Nayak?

The stage is set for the mother of all clashes. The biggest names in the Telugu film industry will be competing for audiences' attention for Sankranti 2022. 2022 is all set to begin with a bang with the release of SS Rajamouli's magnum opus RRR, featuring Jr NTR, Ram Charan, Alia Bhatt and Ajay Devgn, across five languages on January 7. This will be followed by the release of Pawan Kalyan-Rana Daggubati starrer Bheemla Nayak, directed by Saagar K Chandra on January 12. The long-awaited Prabhas, Pooja Hegde starrer Radhe Shyam also gears up for a grand release on January 14. 

Although it's not official yet, Bangarraju, the rural entertainer starring Nagarjuna, Naga Chaitanya, Ramya Krishna and Krithi Shetty, has been hinting about a release on January 15. At least, that was the scenario before Bheemla Nayak confirmed its release date today. With huge stakes involved and grand releases planned for RRR, Bheemla Nayak and Radhe Shyam across the Telugu states, it'll remain quite a challenge for the team of Bangarraju to find a good number of theatres. 

And even if Bangarraju manages to go ahead for the Sankranti slot, it'll be very likely a situation where every film will eat into each other's collections at the box office, which is not something that any of the producers would hope for. The challenge here for team Bangarraju being that they have closed a deal with the ZEE group to release the film in January and would have to stay true to their word if they don't want any financial implications later. As tough as the situation may be for the film's team, the next best alternative for release would be January 26.

The advantage for Bangarraju is that it has been made at a reasonably lower budget in comparison to other releases and it wouldn't be much of a challenge, given its promising star cast, to recover the investment. The release of Bheemla Nayak for Sankranti is certain to change many business equations in the industry. The release definitely doesn't augur well for RRR, owing to the stiff competition it has to face with the Pawan Kalyan starrer and Radhe Shyam in the second week. This is turning out to be quite a thriller!