Another small-budget film is becoming the talk of the town. This time, Kannada romantic drama Premada Ooralli has witnessed a remarkable jump at the box office. After opening at just Rs 9 lakh, the film earned Rs 3.5 crore on its tenth day, taking its total India net collection to Rs 16.96 crore. Made on a modest budget of just Rs 2.5 crore, Premada Ooralli is being touted as one of the most profitable films in Kannada cinema, alongside Love Mocktail 3 and Karavali. The film continues to draw audiences, with multiple shows in Bengaluru filling up even on a Monday, according to BookMyShow.

From no shows to housefull

According to industry tracker Sacnilk, the film opened to just Rs 9 lakh across 60 shows, partly because it did not feature a major Kannada star. However, word-of-mouth helped the film gain momentum almost immediately. On day two, Premada Ooralli saw its earnings rise by Rs 14 lakh, while the number of shows increased by 21. On day three, it earned Rs 55 lakh across 155 shows, recording a 55% occupancy.

The film continued to grow even on weekdays, earning Rs 65 lakh on its first Monday and Rs 95 lakh on Tuesday. On its second Sunday, it collected Rs 3.85 crore, taking its India net total to Rs 14.57 crore at that point.

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Within 10 days, the film had crossed the one-million footfall mark in theatres. On its 11th day, Premada Ooralli had already crossed the Rs 1 crore mark, with the film running across 311 shows.

Premada Ooralli to become the most profitable Kannada film

While Toxic was one of the biggest Kannada releases of the year, the film failed to make an impact at the box office and reportedly could not recover its massive budget of over Rs 500 crore.

Meanwhile, Love Mocktail 3, made on a reported budget of Rs 2 crore, earned Rs 18.55 crore at the box office, delivering nearly 10 times its investment. It was subsequently regarded as one of the most profitable Kannada films of the 21st century. Premada Ooralli, however, is now threatening to surpass that record, having already come close to its lifetime collection within just 10 days.

Featuring a cast of relatively new faces, the film is directed by National Award-winning filmmaker Manoj Kumar. He won the National Award for Best Feature Film in Kannada for his debut film Akshi, which was made on a budget of just Rs 23 lakh and shot over 55 days.

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Produced by Vannila Entertainment, Janakamma Productions and Mukul Gowda Productions, the film stars Rangayana Raghu, Shree Raam, Thapaswini Poonacha and Ramika Shivu.

The film’s trailer has garnered over 2.3 million views, while its songs have also found an audience online. Several tracks have clocked millions of views, with “Eru Peru Hrudaya” alone garnering 4.5 million views on YouTube.

But the film’s journey to the big screen was far from easy.

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‘Begged people to give the film a chance’

By the time the shoot wrapped up, the makers had virtually no budget left for marketing. Their solution was unconventional: they printed wedding-style invitation cards, boarded buses and trains, handed them to commuters and “begged” people to give the film a chance.

Speaking to Cinema Express, Manoj Kumar recalled how the film initially struggled to find an audience.

“They plastered posters on autorickshaws; we truly owe those drivers. At 10:30 AM that Friday, not a whisper. By 1:30 PM, complete silence. Then came the 6:30 PM show, and word-of-mouth caught fire. What started across roughly 60 centres surged to 450 by Sunday. Jayanna Combines rolled in like a JCB to clear the path. Distributor Jayanna told us, ‘Every single show through Sunday is houseful till October 4, even you won’t get a ticket.’”

Despite National Award win, director had no work

Manoj Kumar’s return to filmmaking comes five years after his debut, but the gap was not by choice. Despite winning a National Award for Akshi, he struggled to find work.

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“After winning the National Award for Akshi, I couldn’t even find work; people assumed backing an art-house director meant losing money. Devendra, our co-writer and producer, stepped up with his savings,” he said.

The financial constraints during the making of Premada Ooralli were so severe that, on one occasion, Kumar even asked his mother to pawn her mangalsutra, or thaali in Kannada, to help complete the shoot.

When the director had to pawn his mother’s mangalsutra

Thapaswini Poonacha, one of the film’s leads, recalled the emotional incident.

“It was 6:30 PM, fading daylight, and our artificial rain water ran completely dry. Local villagers pumped water from their borewell to help us. Just then, Manoj sir stepped aside to call his mother, which Shree Ram and I overheard. ‘Keep your thaali ready to pawn tomorrow; today’s budget is over, and if we don’t get the shot now, we must extend the shoot.’ That broke us emotionally.

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“Sir had told me Rukmini’s tears must never spill carelessly, they had to brim right in the eye. In that one single take, the rain, camera angles, and our emotions locked into place. When he yelled cut, hugged us, and told his mother, ‘Keep your thaali, we finished in one take,’ I simply broke down.”

Premada Ooralli’s success is part of a larger trend in 2026, which has seen several small-budget films make an outsized impact at the box office across regional industries, including Hindi’s Hanuman Ansh, Marathi’s Deool Band 2 and Malayalam’s Bethlehem Kuduma Unit. In 2025, Gujarati film Laalo was all over the news for earning over Rs 120 crore after being made on a budget of just Rs 1.2 crore.