CutMirchi's coverage points to one clear case, Hanuman Ansh, rather than a genre-wide wave, though two other devotional and mythological titles show mixed results.
The honest answer, based on CutMirchi's coverage over the past month, is narrower than the question implies: it is really one film, Hanuman Ansh, doing the winning, not a genre across the board. The low-budget devotional biopic has climbed past Rs 420 crore worldwide on a reported Rs 2 crore budget (30, 22), overtaking established hits like Chennai Express and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 (30), while other devotional or mythological titles released in the same window, such as The Vvaan and Mahendragiri Varahi, have had far more modest or mixed outcomes (29, 5). So the coverage supports a story about one film's unusual trajectory, with supporting signals from music and upcoming mythological projects, rather than a sweeping trend.
Hanuman Ansh's slow build is the central data point
Hanuman Ansh opened to just Rs 10 lakh on day one in India on August 7, 2026, and spent over two weeks sitting quietly in theatres, the kind of run that usually fades by the second Friday (14). Instead, on day 17 it crossed Rs 2 crore in a single day for the first time, and daily collections climbed steadily rather than spiking and fading (14). By its sixth Wednesday it was still adding Rs 5.75 to 6.25 crore nett, a point CutMirchi's coverage flagged as unusual for a Hindi film running six weeks without a real drop in a year that has mostly been about films opening big and vanishing by week three (12). By week eight it posted what Koimoi described as the highest-grossing eighth week in Indian film history, breaking Kantara's previous record, according to the report, by more than 300% (23). The film has now crossed Rs 300 crore nett domestically and over Rs 420 crore worldwide (18, 30).
The music became a parallel phenomenon before the film even finished its run
Separately from ticket sales, the Hanuman Ansh soundtrack crossed 100 million streams, with the track 'Parvati' hitting 100 million YouTube views and sitting at No. 1 on YouTube Music's Weekly Top Songs in India and No. 2 worldwide (17). Filmfare's coverage noted more than 1.5 million short-form videos made using the song, spanning covers, school prayers, devotional clips and dance reels, and a live rendition performed at a Bhajan Clubbing event in Delhi attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi (17). Producer Namrata Singh said the scale of success exceeded expectations, and director Vishal Chaturvedi called it a win for raw, unfiltered voices (17). That kind of cultural spread around a song, ahead of the film's own theatrical peak, suggests the devotional content resonated beyond the usual trailer-and-release cycle.
International and regional expansion kept adding to the numbers
Hanuman Ansh's overseas opening on September 11 produced a sharp jump: its worldwide tally climbed to 237.43 crore gross by that Saturday, pushing it past Dhamaal 4 to become Bollywood's fifth highest-grossing release of 2026 globally (7). In North America it has outpaced Bhooth Bangla, taking fourth place among Bollywood's 2026 grossers with $2.47 million from just 21 days of release, ahead of Main Vaapas Aaunga and Bhooth Bangla (20). The film is now also entering Telugu theatres on October 9 through Hombale Films, the production house behind KGF, Kantara and Salaar, after its original arrangement with Trivikram Srinivas's Fortune Four Cinemas banner fell through days before a planned September 18 debut (11, 19, 21). That Telugu release lands in direct competition with Trivikram's own Aadarsha Kutumbam, a clash CutMirchi's coverage frames as deliberate rather than coincidental (19).
Other devotional and mythological titles show a more mixed picture
The pattern is not uniform across the genre. The Vvaan: Force of the Forrest, a spiritual thriller starring Tamannaah Bhatia and Sidharth Malhotra built around Chhath Puja devotional elements in its music (13), has crossed Rs 84 crore worldwide but remains short of the Rs 100 crore break-even target traders set, on a reported Rs 80 crore budget, with collections dipping sharply after an early peak (29). Mahendragiri Varahi, a devotional mystery thriller built around a curse from Goddess Varahi, split critics on day one, drawing a middling 2.75 out of 5 from 123telugu and a harsher verdict from Telugu Filmibeat describing it as a half-baked devotional drama that squanders its premise (5). Nitesh Tiwari's Ramayana: Part 1, meanwhile, has generated sustained pre-release attention through its music and casting rather than box office figures, since it has not yet released; its first song, 'Jai Jai Ram,' composed by A.R. Rahman with lyrics by Kumar Vishwas and vocals by Arijit Singh and Shreya Ghoshal, was deliberately timed to Ganesh Chaturthi and pitched as devotional rather than a big dance number (8, 9). On the global mythological front, Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey continues to perform in China, nearing $100 million there and sitting at $1.64 billion worldwide (2), though that is a Hollywood mythological epic rather than an Indian devotional film.
What the coverage does not tell us
This is a reading of roughly a month of one site's coverage, and it leans heavily on a single standout case, Hanuman Ansh, rather than a broad sample of devotional or mythological releases. The trade figures cited throughout, including Hanuman Ansh's crore totals and the North America dollar figures, are estimates reported by outlets like Koimoi, Pinkvilla, and others, and some reports even show the same outlet giving slightly varying numbers within one article (12). CutMirchi's coverage does not explain why audiences specifically responded to Hanuman Ansh's content, tone or treatment of Neem Karoli Baba's story, beyond noting producer and director comments about the music's reach (17); the actual reasons viewers chose devotional content over other genres, such as personal faith, word-of-mouth dynamics, or marketing choices, are not something news coverage alone can establish. The release tracker also shows that Drama remains the most common genre tracked across every language, including Telugu with 24 drama titles against mythological or devotional-specific categories not broken out separately, so it is not possible from this data to say devotional films are outperforming other genres as a category.
What to watch
Hanuman Ansh's Telugu debut on October 9 against Trivikram Srinivas's Aadarsha Kutumbam will be a direct test of whether its momentum carries into a new market and a competitive slot (19, 22). The film's makers are reportedly holding off on an OTT release, choosing to keep it in theatres rather than rush to sell streaming rights while ticket sales continue (26). Nitesh Tiwari's Ramayana: Part 1 remains a major mythological release to track, with a second trailer expected after a London concert and the full Rahman-Zimmer score still to come ahead of its release (4, 8). Raghava Lawrence has been confirmed as Karna in Mahaveer Karna, though that mythological project has quietly pushed its release from a planned December 2026 date to an unspecified window in 2027 (15). Prasanth Varma's mythological project Mahakali, with Akshaye Khanna and Jitin Gulati, is also in production, according to cast comments about the shoot (10).
Sources
- The Odyssey Inches Toward $100 Million In China, reported from Koimoi
- Ramayana Part 1's First Song Is A Ram-Sita Wedding Track, reported from Filmfare, The Times of India Entertainment
- Sumanth's Mahendragiri Varahi Splits Critics And Twitter On Day One, reported from Telugu Filmibeat - Main, 123telugu.com
- Hanuman Ansh And Mirzapur Both Overtake Dhamaal 4 This Week, reported from Koimoi
- Ramayana First Song Jai Jai Ram Pairs Rahman With Kumar Vishwas Lyrics, reported from Google News · Trailer drops, Filmy Focus, DNA India Entertainment
- Ramayana's First Song Jai Jai Ram Drops On Ganesh Chaturthi, reported from Filmfare
- Jitin Gulati Says Akshaye Khanna Was Surprisingly Chatty On Mahakali Set, reported from Bollywood Hungama - Features, Bollywood Hungama - Main Feed
- Trivikram Pulls Out Of Hanuman Ansh's Telugu Release Days Before Debut, reported from Telugu360 - Movie News, The Free Press Journal, 123telugu.com
- Hanuman Ansh Nears Rs 230 Crore After First Real Wednesday Dip, reported from Google News · Box Office India, Google News · World entertainment, Pinkvilla
- Vishal Mishra's Chhathi Maiya Brings Chhath Puja To The Vvaan, reported from Bollywood Hungama - Features, Google News · Bollywood, Bollywood Hungama - Main Feed
- Hanuman Ansh Crosses Rs 300 Crore After Slow August Start, reported from Filmfare
- Raghava Lawrence Confirmed As Karna, Release Pushed To 2027, reported from Track Tollywood, Google News · Trailer drops, 123telugu.com
- Hanuman Ansh’s Soundtrack Is Already a National Phenomenon — Before the Film Releases, reported from Filmfare
- Hanuman Ansh Nears 300 Crore Nett, reported from Glamsham - Bollywood
- Hanuman Ansh Releases in Telugu on October 9, reported from Telugu360 - Movie News
- Hanuman Ansh Outpaces Bhooth Bangla in North America, Enters Top 5 Bollywood Grossers of 2026, reported from Koimoi
- Hanuman Ansh’s Telugu Breakout: October 9, Hombale, and the Aftermath of a ₹400 Crore Sensation, reported from Filmfare, 123telugu.com
- Hanuman Ansh’s Telugu Release Date Is Here — And So Is the Clash, reported from The Times of India Entertainment, Track Tollywood, DNA India Entertainment
- Hanuman Ansh Breaks Its Own Record — Again, reported from Koimoi - Box Office
- Hanuman Ansh Crosses Rs. 300 Crore, Stays in Theatres, reported from 123telugu.com
- The Vvaan’s Last Stand: 84 Crore and Counting, reported from Telugu Filmibeat - Main
- Hanuman Ansh Crosses 420 Crore, Overtakes Chennai Express, reported from Koimoi
This analysis was written by CutMirchi's automated Analysis Desk from the stories listed above and from our release tracker. Figures are as those reports gave them; trade figures are estimates.
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