The 2001 Sankranthi clash made national headlines. Telugu cinema was written about even by a national magazine. The reason? Chiranjeevi's 'Mruga Raju', Venkatesh's 'Devi Putrudu', and Balakrishna's 'Narasimha Naidu' clashed at the box office. All three movies were prestigious titles. They were also the costliest outings in the careers of the three heroes (or, at least, believed to be so by many).
Despite the strong hype over the Balakrishna-B Gopal-Mani Sharma combo, 'Narasimha Naidu' apparently secured just 14 screens in Hyderabad/Nizam. "Mruga Raju and Devi Putrudu dominated the scene, as they were to be released on the maximum number of screens. Narasimha Naidu could secure just 14 theatres in Nizam/Hyderabad in the first weekend. Eventually, as the tide turned, Balakrishna's movie dominated and got more screens for itself," Dil Raju said in an interview in 2022.
Balakrishna's movie had no one betting big on it. Suniel Narang of Asian Cinemas procured Mruga Raju and Devi Putrudu, expecting the movies of Chiranjeevi and Venkatesh to be the biggest crowd-pullers. He was shocked that Narasimha Naidu came and silently conquered the season!
Balakrishna is currently doing Akhanda 2 with Boyapati Sreenu. He has also reunited with his Veera Simha Reddy director Gopichand Malineni.
