Sep 24, 2026 6:33pm IST
Rush Hour At Tamil Box Office: ‘Meesaya Murukku 2,’ ‘Dorothy’ And ‘Lenin Pandiyan’ Have A Still Triumphant ‘Mandaadi’ To Contend With This Week
It is panic time at the Tamil box-office this Friday (Sep. 25) with three films, slugging it out. Backed by pre-release hype and expectations, it appears to be a free-for-all with one of the releases, “Anbil Avan” backing out and postponing the release because of lack of screens.
The three films in contention are…
Meesaya Murukku 2: Written, directed, and starred in by Hiphop Tamizha Adhi, this musical coming-of-age sequel is expected to take a good opening and is leading the advance booking charts by a mile.
Dorothy: A Karthik Subbaraj film set in 1990s Madurai is a rural drama starring Keerthy Suresh, Sananth, and Rishikanth, with music by Ilaiyaraaja.
Lenin Pandiyan: An action drama with debutant Dhaarshan Ganesan (grandson of Sivaji Ganesan) in the lead with music by Ilaiyaraaja.
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The good news is that streaming and satellite rights for all three films have been sold before release, recovering almost 50-60 percent of the cost. But the bad news is that except for “MM2,” the other two are not getting prime show times or even screens with poor advance bookings as well. It is a Catch-22 situation as the films have to release on the dates because there are several biggies lined up for the festive season up ahead. And if films have OTT deals finalised, they recover a good part for their investment back.
“Anbil Avan”’s release has been pushed by a week to October 2, but it hardly makes a difference. On Oct. 1 & 2, a slew of mid-range Tamil films are releasing on Gandhi Jayanthi weekend. The line-up is formidable: Vijay Sethupathi’s “Baththa,” Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Joseph Vijay’s son Jason Sanjay’s directorial debut “Sigma” with Sundeep Kishan, Ram directorial “Yezhu Kadal Yezhu Malai” with Soori and Nivin Pauly and the Telugu-to-Tamil dubbed Fahadh Faasil-starrer “Don’t Trouble The Trouble” & the Hindi version of “Drishyam 3.”
Meanwhile “Mandaadi” continues to do extraordinary business in Tamil Nadu as it crosses ₹100 crores worldwide. And a large number of screens will hold on to the Soori blockbuster in its third week. Plus Nani’s Telugu biggie “The Paradise” releasing on Sep. 24 has better advance booking than new Tamil releases!
As one of the producers commented : “Just pray that the audiences will like your content and word-of-mouth will do the rest”.
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