Tollywood's top stars—Chiranjeevi, Balakrishna, Pawan Kalyan, Ram Charan, and others—are typically expected to light up the screen at least once a year. However, surprisingly, 12 renowned heroes failed to release a single film in 2024.
While stars like Prabhas, Mahesh Babu, and NTR had releases this year, Chiranjeevi remained absent entirely.
After the failure of Bhola Shankar, Chiranjeevi revisited his commitments, shelving some projects and reworking others. This reassessment ultimately cost him the entire year.
Balakrishna, known for consistently delivering back-to-back films, also took a break in 2024 to focus on the Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections. However, he is gearing up for 2025 with Daku Maharaj and Akhanda 2.
Similarly, Pawan Kalyan prioritized politics over films, putting his movie projects on hold. Nonetheless, Harihara Veeramallu and OG are slated for release next year.
Ram Charan, following the success of RRR and Acharya, has been fully occupied with Shankar’s project, extending his absence from the box office to two years.
Nithiin, Naga Chaitanya, and Sai Dharam Tej also experienced setbacks. Nithiin and Chaitanya took a break after consecutive flops, while Sai Dharam Tej limited his work to Bro as he continued recovering from an accident.
Akhil, Naga Shaurya, and Adivi Sesh delayed their releases for various reasons—Akhil and Shaurya due to the impact of flops, and Sesh due to his perfectionist approach to filmmaking.
Bellamkonda Sai Srinivas and Vaishnav Tej similarly struggled. After flops like the Chhatrapati remake and Adikesava respectively, both opted to take a gap year.
Despite this unusual drought, all 12 heroes are expected to bounce back with an active slate of releases in 2025.
