Telugu cinema this weekend: Will The Warriorr and Gargi succeed in drawing audiences to theatres?

Telugu cinema hasn’t witnessed a clean hit at the box office since the release of Major and Vikram, which hit theatres a month ago. Some movies like Ante Sundaraniki, despite earning buzz, wasn’t able to pull the audience to the theatres. The film industry is pinning its hopes on The Warriorr to revive its fortunes this weekend. What could one expect from the releases this weekend?

Ram Pothineni’s The Warriorr, marking the Telugu debut of director N Lingusamy is hitting the screens this Thursday. Ram’s earlier films, iSmart Shankar and Red were commercial successes at the box office. Going by the promotional campaign of The Warriorr, it’s evident that the film is a formulaic commercial entertainer. Set against the backdrop of Kurnool, it’s the story of a clash between a cop and a goon, played by Ram and Aadhi Pinisetty.

In terms of his looks, Ram has never looked better than what he is in The Warriorr all through his career as a dashing cop and his dance moves need absolutely no introduction at all. Meanwhile, Aadhi’s presence in a negative role is certain to grab attention. Krithy Shetty too is riding on consecutive hits in Telugu cinema. The music score by Devi Sri Prasad, Bullet in particular, is a big hit with music buffs. He has always delivered with his background scores too.

Another film, which is set to test its luck at the box office is the Telugu version of Sai Pallavi’s Gargi. Despite its impressive theme and the aggressive promotions, the film lacks adequate buzz to draw audience to theatres. The performance of the film is hence completely dependent on word of mouth. Going by the promos, the film appears to be an emotional drama about a father and a daughter. It’s directed by Gautham Ramachandran and presented by Rana Daggubati.

There are other smaller releases like RGV's Ammayi too, but it would be a mammoth effort for it to make any impact, given the director's form. Telugu audiences aren’t thronging cinema halls like before and it’s imperative that filmmakers need to provide something out-of-the-box to warrant their interest.