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Hanuman Ansh, a Hindi-language devotional drama written and directed by Vishal Chaturvedi and produced on a reported budget of ₹2 crore, has collected over ₹40 crore net in India days into its fourth theatrical week , in a box office trajectory unlike any other.
The film opened on August 7 with a low first-day collection at ₹10 lakh and appeared unlikely to recover its production cost through its theatrical run after earning only ₹1.48 crore in its first two weeks combined.
The turnaround began in the third week. According to box-office tracking platform Sacnilk, the film collected ₹10.40 crore during its third week alone, several times what it had earned in its first fortnight.
The fourth week, beginning August 28, continued the upward trajectory, with a ₹6.25 crore net collection on the film's fourth Friday. As per the tracking website, the film earned ₹12.75 crore on Sunday, August 30, bringing its total net earnings till now up to ₹40.13 crore.
The film is directed and written by Vishal Chaturvedi and centres on a spiritual story built around the life and teachings of Neem Karoli Baba. It stars Chandan Anand and Shobhinav Satyaa in leading roles, alongside Nikhil Dubey, Udaysinh Rajput, Purnima Tiwari, Mannish Chaudhary, and Anil Rastogi.
Backed by executive producer Piyush Thakur, music for the film is composed by Dhirendra Mulkalwar and Sadhu Sushil Tiwari. The film's cinematography is by Vishal Bawa and editing is by Ritish Kesharwani and Shankh Rajadhyaksha,
Recently, in a conversation with Aaj Tak, director Vishal Chaturvedi opened up about the spiritual practices involved in the making of the film. He shared that the producers had approached spiritual leader Premanand Ji Maharaj about the project, who advised them to ensure that the film's lead, playing Neem Karoli Baba, would maintain a strict vegetarian diet.
The director also shared the rules followed on set, with regards to habits to follow and things to be mindful of. Speaking to the news platform, he said, “There were specific rules that had to be maintained on set. Nobody can abuse on set. Nobody can fight or argue on set. Only vegetarian food will be allowed on set. No one associated with the film will drink any alcohol. Every day, we started our shoot by chanting Hanuman Chalisa and ended the day with the same. Every time we had a problem on set, we would recite Hanuman Chalisa.”
Chaturvedi also revealed that lack of budgets for the film's promotions meant that the team took on spiritual 'bhandaras' (free communal meals in temples) to spread the word about the film. “We didn’t have money when we started the campaign for this film. At the same time, we were very clear that except for spreading Neem Karoli Baba’s message to the world, we don’t have to do any other kind of campaign at all. We did bhandaras. We did eight such bhandaras, which became our campaign and spread the word about our film."