The low-budget devotional film has crossed Rs 350 crore worldwide by day 47 and is closing in on the Rs 400 crore mark in India.
Forty-seven days in, and Hanuman Ansh is still finding new money. The devotional film built around episodes from Neem Karoli Baba's life has crossed Rs 350 crore worldwide, according to trade estimates, and it has done this on a budget that reportedly sits at Rs 2 crore before promotions and around Rs 3 crore with them factored in.
That number matters because of who it just passed. Trade sources cited by Telugu Filmibeat say Hanuman Ansh's worldwide total has now gone past the lifetime collections of Toxic, the Yash-starrer that came in with a reported Rs 500 crore budget and closed its theatrical run at around Rs 342 crore. One film cost more than a hundred times the other to make. The smaller one is ahead.
The road here wasn't smooth. Hanuman Ansh opened on July 31 across major Indian cities and did nothing for a fortnight, according to trade figures, pulling in roughly Rs 1 crore in its first week and just Rs 40 lakh in its second. Anyone tracking it in early August would have written it off.
Then it turned. Week three brought in about Rs 10.5 crore, trade sources say, and the film kept climbing from there, adding Rs 61 crore in week four, Rs 90 crore in week five and Rs 80 crore in week six, taking the six-week India tally past Rs 242 crore by these estimates.
The final stretch
The seventh week has kept the momentum going, if unevenly. Day 43 added roughly Rs 5 crore, day 44 jumped to Rs 10 crore, day 45 brought in Rs 14 crore, and day 46 settled at around Rs 4 crore, per trade tracking. That puts India net collections at Rs 277 crore and gross at Rs 326 crore.
Overseas numbers only entered the picture in week six, when the film got an international release. It has added close to Rs 27 crore gross abroad so far, pushing the worldwide gross past Rs 353 crore. Day 47 alone is expected to bring in another Rs 3 crore-plus, trade watchers estimate, with the film now within reach of the Rs 400 crore club globally.
What's odd is how quiet the industry has been about it. A film clearing Rs 350 crore worldwide on a budget under Rs 3 crore would ordinarily draw congratulatory posts from half of Bollywood. Social media chatter around Hanuman Ansh has noted the silence, wondering aloud why a numbers story this unusual hasn't pulled in the usual round of trade Twitter enthusiasm.
The film features newcomers Shobhanivas Satya, Vihan Shedge, Chandan K Anand, Purnima Tiwari and Anil Rastogi, and is directed by Vishal Chaturvedi, who also wrote the story, screenplay and dialogue. Ragini S, Namrata G Singh, Anupriya A Nagar and Chaturvedi himself produced it. Whether it clears Rs 400 crore worldwide before its run ends is now just a matter of a few more weeks.
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