Vishnu Manchu is off to a great start with his new film Kannappa. The movie, directed by Mukesh Kumar Singh, released on Friday and gave the actor his best opening weekend ever, earning a solid Rs 22.53 crore in just three days. While it didn鈥檛 beat the first weekend numbers of HanuMan, Kannappa still did really well at the box office and drew big crowds across India. Directed by Mukesh Kumar Singh, the film comes packed with star power featuring big names like Akshay Kumar, Prabhas, Mohanlal, and Sarathkumar in key roles
As per Sacnilk, Kannappa saw a further dip in collections on Sunday, earning an estimated Rs 6.03 crore net in India. This took the film鈥檚 total to Rs 22.53 crore over its opening weekend. The film had a strong start on Friday with Rs 9.35 crore but dropped by around 23.53 per cent on Saturday, collecting Rs 7.15 crore.
Kannappa performed best in the Telugu language, even though it was released in other South Indian languages and Hindi as well. On Sunday, the Telugu version saw a healthy 42.33 per cent occupancy, while the Tamil version recorded a decent 24.83 per cent.
For some perspective, Prasanth Varma鈥檚 HanuMan, starring Teja Sajja, turned out to be a surprise box office hit when it hit theatres in 2024. The film outperformed several big-star releases like Mahesh Babu鈥檚 Guntur Kaaram, Venkatesh鈥檚 Saindhav, and Nagarjuna鈥檚 Naa Saami Ranga, earning a strong Rs 40.65 crore over its first weekend. It had opened with Rs 4.5 crore on a Thursday and went on to collect Rs 24.65 crore in just two days.
In comparison, Kannappa is currently facing minimal competition, with only Kuberaa, released last week, still running in theatres. Kuberaa has so far collected Rs 75.7 crore net in India.
Kannappa was released in multiple languages includin Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, and Hindi. But so far, its strongest performance has been in the Telugu market.
For Vishnu Manchu, Kannappa marks a major career milestone. It has already become his best-performing film to date. His previous outings, Ginna and Mosagallu, failed to cross even Rs 1 crore in lifetime earnings. The last time Vishnu saw a notable opening was way back in 2014 with Rowdy, which earned Rs 3 crore on Day 1 and ended its first week at around Rs 11 crore.
A review by News18 of Kannappa read, 鈥淭he whole sequence and the visual effects are superbly done, an example of how far our cinema has evolved technologically. Back in the day, the same scene would鈥檝e involved golden cardboard arrows moving at less than 24 frames per second. One arrow would spew fire, the opponent鈥檚 would quench it with water. If one turned into a snake, the other would become its predator, an eagle. Mukesh Kumar Singh鈥檚 Kannappa isn鈥檛 weighed down by such age-old silliness. Here, the fight sequences and visuals look rich. However, if one were to read out the dialogues of Kannappa and any devotional film from the past one after the other, it would be hard to discern which is from 2025 and which is not.鈥
Kannappa is a 2025 Indian Telugu-language mythological devotional film directed by Mukesh Kumar Singh. The story, written by Vishnu Manchu鈥攚ho also plays the titular role鈥攊s inspired by the legend of Kannappa, a devoted follower of Lord Shiva in Hindu mythology. The film is produced by veteran actor Mohan Babu and features a star-studded ensemble cast including Preity Mukhundhan, Kajal Aggarwal, Mohan Babu, R. Sarathkumar, Arpit Ranka, Brahmanandam, Brahmaji, Siva Balaji, Kaushal Manda, Rahul Madhav, Devaraj, Mukesh Rishi, Raghu Babu, and Madhoo in key supporting roles.