Rajinikanth's Darbar is Sankranthi box office winner

Sankranthi is special to Telugus and Tamilians not only because it's a huge festival but also because it brings with it new movie releases. Producers down South block the dates months in advance so they can cash in on the festive sentiment. There were three big ticket releases that hit theatres this Sanlkranthi—Rajinikanth's Darbar, Mahesh Babu's Sarileru Neekevvaru and Allu Arjun's Ala Vaikuntapurramloo. All three got massive openings at the box office. The three big ticket releases set the cash registers ringing at the ticket windows and it was hard to get a ticket for either of these owing to the fact that theatres screening these movies were running to packed houses.

Meanwhile, fans of Mahesh and Bunny got into a virtual war over how much each of their movies collected at the box office. Even though the makers of both films claimed huge figures, fans called their bluff saying they were inflated figures. However, as per trade analysts reports released recently, both the Telugu Sankanthi releases—Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo and Sarileru Neekevvaru collected close to 100 crores at the box office. While the Bunny movie was a family drama loaded with comedy and directed by Trivikram Srinivas, the Mahesh movie was based on patriotic sentiment. This movie too had enough laughable moments. Sarileru Neekevvaru was directed by Anil Ravipudi. Mahesh is riding on the success of his back-to-back releases in the recent times—Srimanthudu, Bharat Ane Nenu,Maharshi and now Sarileru Neekevvaru.

Bunny, on the other hand, is kicked about the response to his movie as he took a break from movies after his previous film Naa Peru Surya bombed at the box office.

Now, back to Rajinikanth's Darbar. The AR Murugadoss directorial released amid huge expectations. The first week saw housefull boards outside theatres across the world. Thalaivar fans were more than happy to see Rajini back in cop avatar and his larger than life persona, trademark dialogues, all made the movie a must watch for staunch supporters of the Tamil superstar. In Kollywood box office, both Pongal releases Dhanush's Pattas and Rajinikanth's Darbar did exceptionally well at the box office. So there's no one winner as such. However, if you were to take collections into account then Darbar has clearly beaten the likes of Sarileru Neekevvaru, Pattas, Ala Vaikuntapurramloo with a whopping Rs 200 crores at the box office. Darbar is the Tamil superstar's fifth film to collect Rs 200 crores. So clearly the winner of Sankranthi box office is Rajinikanth's Darbar.