Box office: F2 emerges as the winner among Sankranti releases in Telugu

This Sankranti saw Telugu films NTR Kathanayakudu, Vinaya Vidheya Rama and F2 - Fun And Frustration slug it out at the box-office. Although both NTR Kathanayakudu and Ram Charan’s Vinaya Vidheya Rama took a head start at the ticket window and managed to register big opening, they couldn’t sustain it due to highly mixed feedback to their content.

Ani Ravipudi’s wholesome entertainer F2, starring Venkatesh and Varun Tej, was the third and last release of this festival season and yet managed to emerge as the winner with highly positive word of mouth.

According to the makers, in its opening weekend F2 managed to gross a whopping Rs32 crore worldwide and is already inching close to entering the profit zone. Both NTR Kathanayakudu and Vinaya Vidheya Rama on the other hand fell flat after a strong start at the box-office. Vinaya Vidheya Rama, Ram Charan’s maiden collaboration with director Boyapati Srinu, was unanimously panned by critics and audiences alike for its over-the-top presentation and silly writing.

The highly anticipated NTR biopic — NTR Kathanayakudu — opened to warm reception on release day as audiences thronged to theatres to watch the film. However, the film started to witness big drop in numbers from the second day onwards. The industry grapevine is that the makers are now contemplating settling losses to the film’s distributors in many areas.

F2, which also stars Mehreen Pirzada and Tamannaah Bhatia, has worked big time with family audiences as it also marks the return of vintage Venkatesh in an out-and-out comic role.