New Delhi: While big-budget films continue to dominate headlines with star power, lavish promotions and crores spent on production, Hanuman Ansh has emerged as an unlikely box-office success story. Made on a reported budget of just Rs 2 crore, the devotional film inspired by the life and teachings of Neem Karoli Baba has crossed the Rs 100-crore mark in India backed not by a massive star cast, but by faith, word-of-mouth and an extraordinary commitment from its filmmaker.
The film’s writer-director and producer, Dr Vishal Chaturvedi, has revealed that he waived his entire directing fee for the project. But that was not the only sacrifice he made. Chaturvedi said he followed a fruit-only diet for around four-and-a-half months before the film’s release, while maintaining a devotional atmosphere on the sets, where the crew followed a vegetarian diet and recited the Hanuman Chalisa every day.
According to Sacnilk figures cited in reports, Hanuman Ansh has so far recorded a gross collection of around Rs 117.46 crore in India, with its net collection standing at approximately Rs 99.29 crore. The film continues its theatrical run even after 31 days.
From a Rs 2 crore film to a Rs 100 crore success
The scale of the film’s performance becomes clearer when its reported budget is taken into account. Produced for around Rs 2 crore, Hanuman Ansh has achieved a box-office run that has put it in competition with much larger releases.
The film opened quietly on August 7, collecting only around Rs 10 lakh on its first day. Rather than collapsing after a weak opening, however, it gradually built momentum. Its fortunes changed significantly in the third week as positive word-of-mouth and growing interest in its devotional subject brought audiences into theatres.
The result has been a dramatic turnaround, a film that began almost unnoticed has gone on to cross the Rs 100 crore milestone.
Director took no fee for the film
Chaturvedi, who both directed and produced Hanuman Ansh, said he deliberately chose not to take remuneration as its director. “I am also the film’s producer and director, I waived off my fees for the film,” he said while speaking on The Raunac Podcast.
For a filmmaker backing a project himself, foregoing a directing fee represents a significant personal commitment. But Chaturvedi’s involvement went beyond financial sacrifice. He said the production was conducted in an environment designed to remain consistent with the spiritual nature of the story.
“The set was vegetarian, and we used to do the Hanuman Chalisa path every day. In fact, I was on a fruit diet for around 4.5 months before the film’s release,” he said.
Inspired by ‘Jai Santoshi Maa’
Chaturvedi has also spoken about the film that inspired him to revive devotional cinema for mainstream audiences Vijay Sharma’s 1975 classic Jai Santoshi Maa.
According to the filmmaker, he spent around one-and-a-half years studying the film. He believes its extraordinary success demonstrated the enormous potential of spiritual cinema, a genre he feels has gradually disappeared from mainstream filmmaking.
He pointed to the film’s release alongside Sholay and its remarkable profitability as evidence that devotional cinema could command a mass audience. The question of why such films subsequently became scarce eventually became one of the motivations behind Hanuman Ansh, he explained.
Rejection only strengthened his resolve
The road to Hanuman Ansh was not without setbacks. Chaturvedi revealed that he had approached an OTT platform with the story but was rejected.
According to him, the platform described the story as an “Indian story with international relevance”. Chaturvedi said he was deeply affected by the manner in which the story was rejected and felt that the response reflected a larger disconnect in how Indian spiritual narratives were viewed.
Instead of abandoning the project, the rejection strengthened his determination to make the film. For Chaturvedi, Hanuman Ansh consequently became more than another film project. It was an attempt to bring a largely neglected devotional genre back to the big screen and to do so on his own terms.
Faith, risk and an unlikely box-office victory
Hanuman Ansh may have started with a modest Rs 10 lakh opening, but its subsequent journey has proved that theatrical success cannot always be predicted by budgets, celebrity line-ups or opening-day numbers.
The film, based on the life and philosophy of Neem Karoli Baba, has been written, directed and produced by Dr Vishal Chaturvedi, with Shobhinaw Satyaa in the lead role.
Its reported Rs 100-crore-plus gross is particularly striking against its Rs 2 crore production budget. And behind that unexpected success lies a filmmaker who not only put his own money and reputation behind the project, but also gave up his directing fee and followed months of personal devotional discipline before the film reached audiences.
