At the 27th National Film Awards, Sankarabharanam became the first South indian film to win Best Film with mass Appeal, Wholesome Entertainment & Aesthetic Values, as well as seven state Nandi Awards. The movie received numerous honors and awards. JV Somayajulu and manju bhargavi played the main characters in the musical-drama movie. When the movie debuted on february 2nd, 1980, the theaters were almost completely empty, but by the end of the first week, every showing had a full house. The movie had a remarkable run, playing in numerous theaters for more than 25 weeks.
Without dubbing, it was released in Bangalore and ran for a year. Later, the same title was used for the tamil and malayalam dubs. The malayalam dub continued to play in theaters for more than a year. The movie was then recreated in hindi under the direction of k viswanath as Sur Sangam.