NTR Mahanayakudu Turns Out to be Biggest Failure of Nandamuri Balakrishna's Career: Report

NTR Mahanayakudu, the second film in the two-part Telugu biopic based on the life of renowned actor and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao (NTR), hit the theaters on February 22. Regardless of the hype and relentless promotions, the film was rejected by the audience and turned out to be the biggest failure of Nandamuri Balakrishna's career, reports International Business Times.

The report states that NTR: Mahanayakudu opened to poor response at the box office and couldn't manage to collect even the one-fourth business of NTR: Kathanayakudu, the first part of the biopic.

"The audience rejected the film outright over the weekend. It is the biggest failure for Balakrishna in the 21st Century. It is a legendary disaster," the publication quoted a source from the trade circle as saying.

"It was an embarrassing development that 'NTR: Mahanayakudu' failed to recover rentals in many places on its opening day. Its shares, which were calculated on percentage basis, could not touch Rs 1 crore on the first day Share," the source added.

NTR’s son and actor Balakrishna was seen in the titular role. Apart from him, an array of prominent stars like Rana Daggubati, Vidya Balan, Sumanth, Prakash Raj and Sachin Khedekar played crucial roles in this two-part biopic. While the first part, NTR Kathanayakudu, traces the journey of NTR as an actor, the second part highlighted his political success.

However, the film opened to positive reviews and the actors were lauded for their performance. Brahmani Nara, daughter of Indian film actor and politician Nandamuri Balakrishna and wife of Chandrababu Naidu's son Nara Lokesh took to Twitter to share her thoughts on NTR biopic part two, NTR Mahanayakudu. She wrote, "#NTRMahanayakudu is an emotion packed, powerful, engaging epic. Congratulations to my father NBK for reliving the selfless passion and stamina of my beloved grandfather in bringing #TeluguPride. Enjoyed the brilliant performances and the crisp, flawless execution." (sic)