After generating a lot of hype for its star cast and religious themes, Vishnu Manchu’s Kannappa struggled to perform strongly at the box office. Reportedly made on a massive budget of Rs 200 crore, the film managed to gross Rs 42 crore at the box office worldwide, and hence largely depended on its OTT deals to recover its costs. 

In a media interaction prior to the film’s release, Vishnu Manchu had stated that he plans to stall the OTT release of his film until 10 weeks after the theatrical release. However, reports are now coming in that Prime Video will begin streaming Kannappa on July 25. An official announcement from the streamer giant is yet to be made though.

It is to be noted that barring Sankranthiki Vasthunam, almost every Telugu film in 2025 has had a release window of 4 weeks at best before hitting OTT. It seems like Kannappa will join the league of these times, instead of setting an example for other makers.

Directed by Mukesh S Singh, Kannappa told the mythological story of Thinnadu (Vishnu Manchu), an atheist in the second century who despises the rituals of his tribes and rebels against the norms, but evolves into the devour Kannappa after a brief encounter with the divine. In our review for the film, we noted, “The biggest sin here is lack of narrative urgency. Thinnadu's spiritual awakening, arguably the core of the story, arrives in the final thirty minutes. Until then, we are fed a series of unconnected drama and action scenes that look like rejected Braveheart footage.”

Kannappa also starred Akshay Kumar, Prabhas, Kajal Aggarwal, Madhoo, Mohanlal, and Preity Mukundhan among many others in the ensemble cast. The film was produced by Mohan Babu in association with 24 Frames Factory.