Virat Karrna and Nabha Natesh-starrer Nagabandham – The Secret Treasure hit theatres on July 3 amid decent buzz in the Telugu market, but it was the film’s reported Rs 100 crore budget that truly grabbed attention.
With no major star leading the cast, the massive production cost sparked curiosity among moviegoers and helped generate some opening-day footfall.
That buzz was enough for the mythological fantasy action-adventure film to register Tollywood’s eighth-biggest opening of 2026 at the Indian box office.
The film opened to largely decent reviews from critics, while initial audience word-of-mouth was also reasonably positive.
The response reportedly helped collections improve during the evening and night shows.
According to Sacnilk estimates, Nagabandham collected around Rs 3.25 crore net in India on Day 1. The original Telugu version contributed the lion’s share with approximately Rs 2.9 crore net.
The Hindi-dubbed version opened with around Rs 20 lakh, while the Tamil version collected nearly Rs 10 lakh.
The Kannada and Malayalam versions reportedly earned around Rs 2 lakh and Rs 3 lakh, respectively.
Considering its reported Rs 100 crore budget, however, the opening is far from spectacular.
The film will now need strong word-of-mouth and a significant jump over the weekend to build momentum at the box office.
For a movie mounted on such a costly scale without a top-tier star, the next two days could prove crucial in deciding whether Nagabandham turns into a surprise success or a risky box-office bet.
