Ravi Teja's Irumudi has crossed ₹220 crore worldwide, and Chiranjeevi decided that called for more than a congratulatory tweet.

The Megastar invited the film's cast and crew to his residence this week, personally felicitating Ravi Teja, director Shiva Nirvana and producers Naveen Yerneni and Ravi Shankar. Ram Charan joined his father for the gathering, turning it into a two-generation seal of approval from one of Tollywood's biggest families.

It's a notable gesture, and not just because it's Chiranjeevi. Irumudi is a devotional drama, a genre that rarely tops box office charts the way action or mass entertainers do. That it has gone on to become one of the highest-grossing regional films of all time is the kind of number that makes even the people who made it sit up.

According to Filmfare, the film's own team has admitted the scale of the success caught them off guard. Irumudi released on August 21 and has stayed in theatres since, building word of mouth week after week rather than front-loading its collections on opening weekend. That's a harder trick to pull off than a big first three days, and it's part of why the film's run has drawn attention beyond the usual box office chatter.

Ravi Teja, for his part, called the felicitation another celebratory chapter in a success story the film has already been writing for itself. Coming from an actor whose career has had its share of ups and downs over the past decade, that framing carries some weight. Irumudi isn't just a hit, it's arguably the biggest commercial vindication Ravi Teja has had in years.

Shiva Nirvana's direction has been central to that turnaround. The filmmaker, who has largely worked in romance and family drama territory before this, took on a devotional subject and made it work at a scale that surprised distributors and trade watchers alike. Producers Naveen Yerneni and Ravi Shankar, who backed the project, now have another big number to point to.

What happens next for Irumudi at the box office is worth watching. Films that cross the ₹200 crore mark on the strength of steady, extended runs rather than opening-weekend spectacle tend to have longer shelf lives in re-releases and satellite deals. Whether Irumudi keeps climbing or plateaus from here will say a lot about how much room devotional cinema still has in a market dominated by mass-hero spectacle.

For now, though, the picture from Chiranjeevi's residence, with Ram Charan standing alongside Ravi Teja, Shiva Nirvana and the producers, is the moment the industry has chosen to mark the win.