A month after it opened to near-empty halls, Hanuman Ansh is going regional and going global. Producer Namrata Singh tells Bollywood Hungama that Telugu filmmaker Trivikram Srinivas, best known for Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo, is on board to oversee the film's Telugu version.

The timing isn't random. Singh says the team pushed hard to lock an international release for this Friday, September 11, because it marks the Mahasamadhi day of Neeb Karori Baba, the spiritual figure the film draws its story from. He is believed to have died in 1973, and Singh says getting the overseas rollout ready in time "took everything out of us."

Hombale Films, the studio behind the KGF franchise, has stepped in to handle the international release. Phars Film, which distributes YRF titles abroad, is also part of the release machinery, with local sub-distributors lined up territory by territory. Singh says the overseas screen count should firm up by Wednesday, September 9, though she describes Hombale's ambitions for the rollout as considerable.

Hanuman Ansh released on August 7 to what Singh describes as literally no audience on day one. She says the film only started drawing crowds from its third week, a slow-burn trajectory that trade watchers have since called one of the more unusual box office stories of the year. Early screenings, she says, were filled largely by underprivileged and cancer-affected children, some 3,000 of them in the first week, funded by IT distributor Team Computers.

Beyond the dubbing and distribution, Singh is building out what she calls an IP play rather than a franchise. A mobile game themed around "Hanuman kavach" is in development with the studio behind FAU-G, and talks are underway with a major publisher for a companion comic book. Singh, Vishal Chaturvedi and co-producers Ragini S and Anupriya A Nagar have retained the underlying IP rather than licensing it out.

On a possible sequel, Singh is dismissive of the usual playbook. She says there's no plan to simply follow up a hit with a part two or three, framing the film instead as a single, complete work built around calm rather than spectacle.

Streaming rights remain unresolved. Singh says platforms have approached the team, but she's holding out for a partner willing to prioritise reach across languages over the size of the cheque. Times Spiritual is on board as music partner, and exhibitor Cinepolis has leaned into the film's devotional angle in cinemas, playing the Hanuman Chalisa and handing out prasad at some screenings.

With the Telugu version and the international release both landing this week, the next marker to watch is that Wednesday screen count, and whether Hombale's reach abroad can extend a run that, by Singh's own account, nobody saw coming.