5 January 2023
Hyderabad

Hours after producer Boney Kapoor announced the release date of Thegimpu, starring Ajith Kumar, on Wednesday evening, Dil Raju’s production house Sri Venkateswara Creations too followed suit. “#Varisu is releasing worldwide in theatres on Jan 11th Indha Pongal pakka celebration nanba,” SVC posted on Twitter last night. With Ajith’s film announced for 11th as well, the battle lines are clearly drawn in both Tamil Nadu and Telugu states, the latter of where both the films are getting good screens despite Telugu releases like Waltair Veerayya (WV) and Veera Simha Reddy (VSR) in the fray this festive season.

One thing that should work in favour of both the Tamil stars' films is the fact that they belong to different genres. While Ajith’s flick is a slick heist drama, Vijay’s padam is a family entertainer sprinkled with humour and action.

WV and VSR aside, there’s another Telugu film which will be jostling for theatres this Sankranti. The title is Kalyanam Kamaneeyam, a romantic comedy, featuring UV’s in-house actor Santosh Sobhan and Tamil actress Priya Bhavani Shankar, in the lead roles. It is scheduled to release on January 14. The promotions of this small film, directed by Anil Kumar A, are in top gear.