Best Telugu Films of All Time — Tollywood's Canon

Telugu cinema is operating at a scale and ambition no other Indian film industry can match right now. Tollywood films routinely outgross Bollywood's biggest releases, and they travel globally in ways Hindi cinema has not managed since the 1990s. The modern Telugu canon is anchored by SS Rajamouli — Magadheera in 2009, Eega in 2012, the two Baahubali films in 2015 and 2017, and then RRR in 2022, which became the first Indian film to win an Academy Award for Best Original Song. But Rajamouli is not alone: Sukumar's Pushpa: The Rise turned Allu Arjun into a pan-India star, its sequel Pushpa 2: The Rule broke every Telugu opening record, and Prashanth Neel's Salaar: Part 1 — Ceasefire proved Prabhas could still open a film to massive numbers post-Baahubali. Nag Ashwin's Kalki 2898 AD is the most ambitious Indian sci-fi ever made, mashing the Mahabharata with dystopian future-fiction. Hanu Raghavapudi's Sita Ramam, a period romance set between Kashmir and the Indo-Pak war, is arguably the most beautiful Telugu film of the last decade. On the lighter side, Trivikram Srinivas's Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo and Nani's Hi Nanna are proof that Tollywood can deliver emotional comedy-dramas at a star-studded scale. Pawan Kalyan's Devara: Part 1 closes out the list as the biggest 2024 action opening in the industry's history. Every film below is streamable free in HD on CineFlixo. If you have never seen a Telugu film, Baahubali: The Beginning is the obvious doorway; RRR, Kantara-adjacent Telugu-Kannada crossover audiences, and Kalki 2898 AD are the three most visually spectacular modern Indian films you will ever see.