Chennai Love Story came out in theaters on July 24, 2026, without all the fuss that usually comes with big Telugu releases. There are no big franchises or plans to play all over India. Just a love story that takes place in Chennai, is about two pretty young actors, and lasts for almost three hours. Most producers would be nervous about that mix. Instead, the movie is still playing to packed theaters during the week, which is about as good of a sign as you can get these days.
The movie is directed by Ravi Namburu and written by Sai Rajesh Neelam, who also worked on Baby and Color Photo. Kiran Abbavaram plays Steven Sankar, an orphan who moves to Chennai to become a screenwriter. He’s happy, a little naive about how talented he is, and cute in the way that only someone who doesn’t know their flaws can be. He meets Nivi, who is played by Sri Gouri Priya, and their love story seems to understand better than most that first love isn’t about big actions but about small moments that add up and change your life in a quiet way.
Kiran Abbavaram has always been good in romantic roles, but this one feels different. He’s not as angry. “Charming” Steven is less of an act and more of just being it, which shows that he is older. The character could have easily become a likeable idiot, but Abbavaram keeps him in check. In the second half, when the movie changes emotionally and he has to carry scenes that ask more of him, you notice this kind of performance more.
When people leave the theater, they go straight to social media, though, and Sri Gouri Priya is the reason. When you watch her in this movie, you get the feeling that Tollywood has been waiting for someone just like her. It’s rare to see someone play Nivi so naturally that you stop paying attention to the performance and just believe the person. A lot of people have said it’s the best turn of the year so far, and it’s hard to disagree. After what she did in Lover, this seems more like confirmation than an accident.
Most people agree that the first half of the movie is very good. Mani Sharma’s music does a lot of heavy lifting in the background. It’s not annoying, but it’s there, like a good film score should be, and it comes in just when the emotion needs it. The romance is built up slowly in the script, and it’s nice that there isn’t any forced conflict during this part. Some people think that Sai Rajesh is now the most reliable author of honest Telugu romances, and Chennai Love Story seems to support that claim.
People’s views start to change in the second half. There’s a plot twist that makes people change what they thought would happen, and not everyone is ready to do that. Some sets of events go on longer than they need to. There are a few emotional moments that are close to melodrama, the kind that feels real at the time but a little overboard when looked back on. Almost every review talks about the three-hour runtime, which is fair. One cut of this movie is shorter and maybe even more powerful. It’s about two hours and twenty minutes long.
Still, the ending is said to be good, which is important. People don’t usually talk about love stories that don’t end well, but this one is clearly doing something right in that area. People in the trade are comparing it to Baby’s run in theaters, which also started without huge pre-release expectations and slowly built an audience through consistent emotional quality. It’s still not clear if Chennai Love Story will get those many views, but it looks like it will.
Some Telugu romances don’t feel the need to explain every feeling or theme. They just trust their audience. Even though it has some problems, Chennai Love Story fits into that group. It’s about broken hearts, second chances, and how some feelings just don’t make sense, but it doesn’t turn its characters into symbols. It’s not as easy as it sounds to do that. One of the best things about it is that it works so often. In fact, that might be worth more than two stars.
