The best and worst Telugu movies in the first half of 2018

The best and worst Telugu movies in the first half of this year: 2018 has raced past the halfway mark and the Telugu film lovers have had plenty of reasons to cherish and lament about thus far. While a few films struck gold at the box office with their engaging concepts, a few others failed miserably in reaching the audience’s expectations are turned out to be big-time duds. Here, we take a look at some of the most memorable and forgettable Telugu movies of 2018 thus far.

The year for Telugu cinema was kickstarted by Powerstar Pawan Kalyan’s much-hyped ‘Agnyaathavasi’. Releasing to packed houses on January 10, this big-ticket film raked in unfavourable reviews right from the initial screenings and, much to the disappointment of the fans, ended up being a huge debacle. It was not until a good two weeks and above that ‘Bhaagamathie’ released to revive the, otherwise, empty movie theatres.

In addition to the Anushka starrer’s strong run, February also witnessed a few other films doing well at the BO. ‘Chalo’, ‘Tholi Prema’, and ‘Awe’ managed to impress the critics and audience alike. Ravi Teja’s ‘Touch Chesi Chudu’ and Sai Dharam Tej’s ‘Intelligent’ among others, however, couldn’t churn out the expected numbers and caught the ire of the critics.

The subsequent month of March had a few disappointments in store as well. While ‘Kiraak Party’ and ‘MLA’ received a mixed response from the audience, a handful of low-budget films were sent packing in a matter of few days.

The much-awaited summer season in Tollywood was set rolling in a grand fashion by ‘Rangasthalam‘, which hit the screens on March 30. The Ram Charan starrer blew the audiences away and emerged as a monstrous hit in multiple markets. Despite ‘Chal Mohan Ranga’ and ‘Krishnarjua Yuddham’ failing to gain appreciation in between, the momentum provided by ‘Rangasthalam’ was carried forward by Mahesh Babu’s ‘Bharat Ane Nenu’, which got the cash registers ringing left, right and centre. The film eventually turned out to be the biggest hit in the actor’s career.

A major disappointment struck when Allu Arjun’s ‘Naa Peru Surya Naa Illu India’ couldn’t manage to reach the expectations that are generally associated with the actor’s films. The following month and a half saw a mixed bag of results for Tollywood. On the one hand, there were films like ‘Mahanati’, ‘Sammohanam’ and ‘Ee Nagaraniki Emaindi’, which were hailed for their heart-touching and well-presented concepts, and on the other hand were the films such as ‘Nela Ticket’ and ‘Officer’, which ended up with disastrous results.