Akkineni Naga Chaitanya’s rural drama Thandel, which released amid massive expectations, posted impressive numbers at the box office on the first two days. Despite releasing during a non-holiday season and without any festival advantage, the Chandoo Mondeti directional managed to hand over career best openings for Naga Chaitanya on Friday.

After a promising start, the film maintained strong hold on Saturday due to the solid walk-ins for night shows to take the total past the 30 Crore gross mark by the end of two days. In territories like Naizam and Uttarandhra, the film registered good revenues on the second day despite so-so reviews and average word of mouth. In Overseas, the film notched up $ 600K including premieres till now. It has slightly underperformed in this territory.

Going by the trend of bookings for Sunday, the film is likely to have another big day in all areas. It is likely to collect much better numbers than Saturday and might surpass the 50 Crores gross by the end of three days. The box office verdict depends on how well the film sustains during weekdays.

Despite narrative shortcomings and some dragged episodes, the film secured decent talk because of Naga Chaitanya’s singular performance and Sai Pallavi’s emotional chemistry with him. Devi Sri Prasad’s stupendous work bolstered the story and helped the film bigtime.