15 Awesome Small Budget Telugu Movies That Ended Up As Big Hits!

The movie that embarked the college love stories league in the new millennium was with this Teja's directorial debut. The movie that was produced by Ramoji Rao with an all new cast and crew became an instant hit with the audience, especially among the youth. 

This movie marked the debut of Chandrashekar Yeleti. The movie started with a creative campaign Chinna cinema! – Aithe? The movie that revolves around four guys who plan and kidnap a most wanted gangster and how things take some unexpected turns in their lives. With some kick-ass screenplay, Chandrashekar Yeleti hit the bull on its eye.

Another movie by Shekar Kammula, this was a coming of age film that turned to be a sensational hit right from its first show. A simple story about a group of friends during their Engineering college days shows the beauty of college, friends, fights, love, break ups and everything you could relate to in your late teens and early 20s.

This was the movie that introduced or rather discovered three great actors for the industry – Nani, Avasarala Srinivas and 'Colours' Swathi. The game of finding the right match for Lavanya (played by ‘Colours’ Swathi) who is a mad fan of Mahesh Babu was a fun-filled ride and turned to be a huge hit from nowhere.

The college rom-com that marked the debut of director Maruthi was barely noticed initially. Once it spread through the word of mouth, audience to the movie never stopped. With the intricacies that are involved in today’s modern world love stories, this movie could connect very well especially with the youth.

It can be said that Nani’s potentiality as an actor was tapped majorly through this movie. Being the debut movie of Nandini Reddy, this rom-com of a boy and girl who meet after their respective break-ups takes twists and turns and finally end up together after a hilarious merry-go-round.

This Telugu horror thriller directed by Ravi Babu captured all the right emotions in right manner and with a perfect screenplay, Ravi managed to pull this off successfully. Though it was backed by a big production house, since this was on the lines of experimental movies, 80% of the movie was made within a single house for the plot it carried and it emerged as a winner at the box-office.

Though this movie was backed by Annapurna Studios, the movie was made on a very small budget for the delicate story that it was. The cast and crew consisted mostly of newcomers. From the director Virinchi Verma to the movie’s lead Raj Tarun, all had previously worked on short films and with this movie, they finally got a breakthrough.

Marking the debut of Srinivas Avasarala as the director, this rom-com had everything right in place. From a tight script, crisp dialogues, music, lyrics to cast and crew, everything was bang on. The perfect execution of the script and performances of Naga Shaurya and Raashi Khanna have made this movie watchable repeatedly.

Perhaps Raju Gari Gadhi is the perfect example for the title – A sleeper hit. Despite a big first film disappoint, popular TV personality Ohmakar could come back with an interesting horror story filled with hilarious entertainment episodes. While lead Ashwin Babu, Poorna and Dhanya did their best, Shakalaka Shankar stands out with his unique comical expressions. The film turned out to be a big hit for all the right reasons.

The subtle subject marked the arrival of Shekar Kammula into the Telugu film industry. Though this was not his debut movie, for the wafer-thin plot that it carried around a boy trying to correct his father’s unintentional damage to a girl and her family was narrated very smoothly. The movie was exactly what they captioned it as – Oka manchi Coffee lanti cinema

If you think most of the small budget movies that made it big are only love stories, this movie will answer all your doubts. Ravikanth Perepu’s Kshanam is a perfect example that you don’t need massive locations and sets to tell a crime thriller. You just need the right cast and a tight script to get it across. This year’s first surprise hit was Kshanam and it has definitely inspired many writers.

Contrary to its title Bichagaadu which means a beggar in Telugu, the film holds the record registering great figures in terms its collections. The film became such a big hit that Tamil actor Vijay Antony could generate a considerable market for himself in Telugu. The major highlight of the film is, the protagonist’s solution to eradicate the black money, which sounds extremely similar to demonetization.

Just when the question of cinema close to reality was raised in Telugu industry, Tharun Bhascker's debut film Pellichoopulu with Vijay Devarakonda in the lead arrived. Smashing everyone’s illusions that Telugu cinema is fit only for commercial cinema and proving once again that budget is never a constraint to execute a well written script, Pellichoopulu emerged as the biggest film from the small budget brackets so far in the history of Telugu cinema. And just to remind you this was also shot on sync-sound – quality never comprised! What else you need?

The man known for making clean and meaningful cinema, Indraganti Mohana Krishna took everyone on a laugh ride with Ami Tumi. Basing his story on the play The Duenna by the English playwright Brinsley Sheridan, Indraganti contextualized it to the nativity without disturbing the core concept of comedy of errors. Vennela Kishore as Sri Chilipi rules the show all the way.