Thandel Box office Collection Day 1: Thandel marks the reunion of Sai Pallavi and Naga Chaitanya after the success of their previous film, Love Story, helmed by Sekhar Kammula. This Chandoo Mondeti project is a love story as well, and was released to much fanfare on February 7. Backed by Geetha Arts, Thandel was expected to open big, and that’s exactly what happened on Friday as the film has reportedly made Rs 10 crore on day one, with almost Rs 9.8 crore coming in from the Telugu version, according to industry tracker Sacnilk.
This is one of the best openers for Naga Chaitanya in a while, since his recent releases, like Custody and Thank You, made under Rs 4 crore on day one. Thandel, which was also released in Tamil and Hindi, didn’t really make an impact in these centres due to the already crowded release window in these states, with a number of films releasing on the same day.
Thandel had an impressive 53.58% occupancy for the Telugu version, and the almost 71% occupancy for the night shows is a fair indicator of things to come. The numbers for Thandel might improve over the weekend. The Hindi version had a dismal 9.13% occupancy, mainly because of films like Loveyapa and Badass Ravikumar being released on the same day. Shahid Kapoor’s Deva is also doing slow business. The Tamil version of Thandel had a similar 9.1% occupancy, but it was bulldozed by the much wider release of Ajith kumar’s Vidaamuyarchi, which would be the first choice for many.
Thandel, which is based on the real-life story of Srikakulam fisherfolk being captured by Pakistani authorities for trespassing into their waters, features Aadukalam Naren, Divya Pillai, Karunakaran, and Prithviraj in pivotal roles. With music by Devi Sri Prasad and cinematography by Shamdat, the film has received mixed to positive reviews from critics and audiences. SCREEN’s Avinash Ramachandran wrote, “When the film focusses on the ups and downs of Sai Pallavi-Naga Chaitanya relationship, it sails quite smoothly, but the moment the film enters the murky waters of Pakistan, Thandel turns into a heroic tale of unlikely heroes, whose sorrow gets lost in the heroism.”
Thandel marks director Chandoo Mondeti’s third collaboration with Naga Chaitanya after Premam and Savyasachi. Apart from this project, Naga Chaitanya has an interesting lineup of films, including one with Virupaksha director Karthik Varma.
