2003
This year was for the younger breed of actors. Ravi Teja, who had appeared in the 2000-release Annayya was the star of Ee Abbai Chala Manchodu. NTR’s grandson, Jr. NTR made his Sankranti debut with Naaga. Meka Srikant and Venu starred in Pellam Oorelithe, and most importantly, the new kid in the block, Mahesh Babu, officially became the ‘mass hero’ with his first bonafide blockbuster, Okkadu directed by Gunasekhar making a solid come-back after his Sankranti failure two years ago.
2004
In 2004, Prabhas, another star on the rise made his Sankranti debut with Varsham, scoring a hit, while the fight was back to the big league stars. Balakrishna’s Lakshmi Narasimha, a remake of the Tamil film Saamy (2003), directed by Jayant C. Paranjee (back from his Takkari Donga failure) was a custom-made film of the festival and was a clear winner. On the other hand, Chiranjeevi-starrer Anji, directed by Kodi Ramakrishna, whose previous film Devi Putrudu was also a commercial failure, was the biggest disappointment of the year. In the making for 3 years, Anji’s failure was such that the producer, Shyam Prasad Reddy, didn’t make a film for the next five years. However, the film won the National award for ‘best special effects’, marking the first for a Telugu film. Likewise, with his eventual entry into politics and break from films, Anji was also the last Chiranjeevi film to release on Sankranti for many years. Furthermore, Balakrishna didn’t deliver commercial success for 6 consecutive years after Lakshmi Narasimha. 2004’s Sankranti was a culmination of sorts.