Sharwanand's Mahanubhavudu made decent collection at the worldwide box office in the first weekend (3 days) to become Dussehra hit in Telugu, beating Mahesh Babu's Spyder and Jr NTR's Jai Lava Kusa.
Mahanubhavudu had a decent amount of publicity and good hype generated by its promos before its release. But the trade pundits were sceptic about its performance at the box office, as they felt that the movie with the young actor in the lead would not be able compete with superstar films like Spyder and Jai Lava Kusa.
The Sharwanand and Mehreen Pirzada starrer was premiered in the US on Thursday and garnered great response there. Maruthi Dasari's script and Sharwanand's comedy timing seem to have clicked and the word of mouth publicity helped it to open big at the Indian box office as well on Friday.
Mahanubhavudu collected Rs 7 crore gross at the worldwide box office on the first day and became the biggest opener for Sharwanand, beating his previous record of Shatamanambhavati, which minted Rs 6.50 crore. The movie earned Rs 3.50 crore for its global distributors on its opening day.
Riding high on good word of mouth the collection surged on Saturday and Sunday. Mahanubhavudu has collected approximately over Rs 21 crore gross at the worldwide box office in the first weekend. The movie has earned Rs 10.50 crore for its distributors in three days.
Its global theatrical rights were reportedly sold at a whopping Rs 8 crore. The film returned 100 per cent of investments with a small profit share to its distributors in its opening weekend. Going by the current trend, Sharwanand movie is likely to bring huge profits to its distributors in the days to come.
While big-ticket movies like Spyder and Jai Lava Kusa failed to live up to the expectations, Mahanubhavudu has surprised everyone in the film industry. It has once again proved that the content matters more for the success of a film than superstars and directors. It is all set to become the next small-budget Telugu film to be a blockbuster, after the stupendous performance of Arjun Reddy recently.
