The summer holiday season is the best period for new movie releases. As the season is spread for more than two months, multiple films can accommodate their releases without clashing with each other. This season also ensures that a hit film enjoys a long run at the theatres. It happened almost every summer for decades. But, the picture is quite different this year. The 2023 summer is disastrous to call the least for Tollywood.
When we consider the summer seasons before the pandemic in 2020, there was at least one blockbuster along with a couple of hits at the ticket windows during every summer season. 2020 summer was struck with COVID and lost in lockdown. Even during those terrifying times when things got eased up, the 2021 summer witnessed two blockbusters Jathi Ratnalu and Vakeel Saab just before the deadly second wave shut down normal life.
Last year's summer got the glory back. Pan India hits RRR and KGF Chapter 2 got released in a week's gap and also witnessed hits like Sarkaru Vaari Paata and F3 at the box office. Toward the end of the summer season, two more super hits in the form of Major and Vikram happened.
The 2023 summer opened positively with Nani starrer Dasara turning out to be a super hit at the box office. Before that, the small film Balagam also emerged as a money spinner. Since then all the big-budgeted films have bit dust except for Virupaksha starring Sai Dharam Tej. Ravi Teja's Ravanasura, Samantha's Shaakuntalam, Akhil's Agent, Gopichand's Rama Banam, and Naga Chaitanya's Custody sank without a trace. All these films together made a loss of nearly Rs 200 crore to the makers and buyers. There is no major release in the coming days since Adipurush on June 16. 2023 remains to be a disastrous summer for Tollywood.