Mana Shankara Vara Prasad Garu Box Office Collection Day 1 Update: Chiranjeevi’s film earns Rs 44.25 crore worldwide

Mana Shankara Vara Prasad Garu Box Office Collection Day 1 Update: Chiranjeevi's film is expected to give tough competition to Prabhas' The Raja Saab.

Mana Shankara Vara Prasad Garu Box Office Collection Day 1 Update: The Chiranjeevi-starrer Mana Shankara Vara Prasad Garu was allotted a unique release window, as releases this year were strategically planned, with four films eyeing the same slot. The biggest among them was the Prabhas-led The Raja Saab. Given Prabhas’ massive fan following, priority was initially given to his film, which secured a January 9 release date. The Raja Saab was granted a solo release along with an entire weekend to prove its box-office potential — a performance that was also expected to determine its screen count in the days ahead.

However, after the film opened to negative reviews and suffered a steep decline in collections — from Rs 63 crore on its opening day to just Rs 4.21 crore by Monday — the release strategy was swiftly revisited. As a result, the makers moved ahead with the release of Chiranjeevi’s Mana Shankara Vara Prasad Garu, paving the way for a much grander rollout and a significantly higher screen count.

Despite the advantage in screens, Mana Shankara Vara Prasad Garu has opened to mixed reviews. While Chiranjeevi’s performance has been widely praised, the film’s screenplay has drawn criticism.

On Monday, its first day of release, the film earned around Rs 28.5 crore in India. The film had recorded Rs 8.6 crore at the special previews on Sunday, taking its overall opening day collection to Rs 37.1 crore.

Following the underperformance of The Raja Saab, exhibitors allocated 2,041 screens across India to the Chiranjeevi starrer. In contrast, the Prabhas-led film, which had opened with 6,670 shows nationwide across Telugu, Hindi, and Tamil, has now seen a steep reduction to 3,627 shows—including 1,252 Telugu, 2,170 Hindi, and 205 Tamil shows.

Although The Raja Saab managed to cross the Rs 100 crore mark worldwide, its domestic collections dipped sharply thereafter. The film earned only Rs 26 crore in India on its second day, followed by a further decline to Rs 19.1 crore on Sunday.

Considering these factors, Mana Shankara Vara Prasad Garu has delivered a strong opening despite releasing on a Monday and with nearly one-third the number of shows compared to the Prabhas starrer at its peak.

This marks Chiranjeevi’s first theatrical release in two years. His last film, Bhola Shankar, released during Independence Week in 2023, opened at Rs 19.15 crore in India but wrapped up with a disappointing lifetime collection of Rs 42.25 crore, despite being made on a budget exceeding Rs 100 crore.

In contrast, Waltair Veerayya, which released around Pongal in the same year, opened at Rs 34.6 crore and went on to collect Rs 219 crore worldwide against a budget of Rs 140 crore, emerging as a clear superhit.

It now remains to be seen whether Mana Shankara Vara Prasad Garu will replicate the success of Waltair Veerayya or face a fate similar to The Raja Saab, especially with upcoming releases like Ravi Teja’s Bhartha Mahasayulaku Wignyapthi and Naveen Polishetty’s Anaganaga Oka Raju, slated for release on January 13 and 14, respectively.