Ravi Teja's Irumudi has quietly pulled off something bigger stars couldn't manage this year. It's now the most-watched Telugu film in theatres in 2026, with 1.45 crore admissions since it opened on August 21, according to Koimoi's tracking of trade numbers. That tally pushes it past Ram Charan's Peddi and Chiranjeevi's Mana Shankara Vara Prasad, two films that opened bigger and louder.

Footfall is the number that matters here, not just money. It counts actual bodies in seats, and Telugu audiences don't show up in those quantities unless word of mouth is doing serious work. Twenty-six days into its run, Irumudi has grossed 184.20 crore net in India on a budget of 35 crore. Strip out the cost and you're left with 149.2 crore in pure profit, a return of 426.3 percent by Koimoi's math. Whichever way the trade wants to slice it, that's a super-hit.

Only one Telugu release has beaten that margin this year: Couple Friendly. Widen the lens to 2025 and Irumudi still holds fourth place, trailing Couple Friendly and two smaller films from last year, Little Hearts and Raju Weds Rambai. For a mid-budget emotional action drama without a pan-India cast around it, that's a strange and welcome place to land.

Shiva Nirvana wrote and directed the film. Naveen Yerneni and Y Ravi Shankar backed it under Mythri Movie Makers, with Priya Bhavani Shankar, Sai Kumar and Baby Nakshathra filling out the roles beside Ravi Teja. The actor, long carried by his Mass Maharaja tag, hasn't always seen his fan following convert into numbers this large. Irumudi flips that.

Online chatter has kept the film in the conversation well past its opening weekend, much of it centred on one song and the film's climax doing the emotional heavy lifting. Mythri has reportedly kept promotional events running on a near-weekly basis to hold Irumudi in the mainstream news cycle, and the box office trend suggests it's working. Most mid-budget Telugu films start fading by the second weekend. This one hasn't.

Twenty-six days in, Irumudi is closing out its theatrical run rather than winding down quietly. The real question now is timing on a streaming deal. Given the return this film has already delivered, Mythri isn't likely to wait long before cashing in that second life too.