The 2026 Sankranthi festival witnessed a highly anticipated clash of five major Telugu films, sparking immense interest among audiences in India. Leading Tollywood news portal 123telugu.com conducted a reader's choice poll to gauge audience satisfaction with the festive releases. The results of this poll overwhelmingly favored Megastar Chiranjeevi's 'Mana Shankara Varaprasad Garu', which secured a dominant 60% of the votes, marking it as the clear winner of the 'Sankranthi showdown 2026'. Following Chiranjeevi's film, Sharwanand's romantic comedy 'Nari Nari Naduma Murari' garnered significant support, securing the second position with 22% of the votes. Naveen Polishetty's 'Anaganaga Oka Raju' placed third, receiving 10% of the reader's choice. These films are also reportedly performing well at the box office, with 'Mana Shankara Varaprasad Garu' already hitting ₹152 crore in three days and being hailed as a blockbuster. 'Anaganaga Oka Raju' opened strong with ₹22 crore on its first day. In contrast, Prabhas' fantasy horror-comedy 'The Raja Saab' and Ravi Teja's romantic comedy 'Bhartha Mahasayulaku Wignyapthi' found themselves at the lower end of the poll results, with 6% and 2% of the votes respectively. Early box office reports and critical reception for 'The Raja Saab' and 'Bhartha Mahasayulaku Wignyapthi' have been mixed to lukewarm, indicating they have fallen short of expectations. The article accurately reflects the sentiment captured by the reader's poll and corroborates it with early box office trends reported by other credible sources, making its claims largely verified and not sensationalized. The intense competition during this lucrative festival season highlights the dynamic nature of the Telugu film industry.