There are moments when the box office behaves less like an accountant and more like a philosopher. It throws out the calculations of the industry and asks an inconvenient question: do audiences really want what the industry assumes they want? Hanuman Ansh, the low-budget Hindi film inspired by the life of Neem Karoli Baba, may be one such moment.
Instead, something unusual happened. Its collections accelerated dramatically after the first two weeks, propelled largely by word of mouth and social media. The arithmetic is astonishing.
Made for roughly ₹ 2 crore, released on 7 August 2026 without the machinery normally associated with a major Hindi film, and opening to a remarkably modest ₹ 10 lakh, the film appeared destined to disappear quietly. By September 13, it had reportedly crossed ₹ 236 crore worldwide.
The young producer whose story has attracted attention is Anupriya Nagar, who was only 21 when she joined the project. They have also conveyed an important message to the film industry: spectacle, violence, glamour and vulgarity have not lost their appeal, but Indian audiences should never be taken for granted. Because she felt an emotional connection with Neem Karoli Baba, she says she put a substantial part of her savings into the film. The narrative is therefore not only about a holy man who performed miracles. Because it has what money cannot easily purchase: authenticity, what it does demonstrate, however, is that a spiritual story, presented in an accessible cinematic form, can find an unexpectedly large audience. Because someone has been personally transformed by the subject has a different quality, a spiritual film made.
She has also acknowledged that she was one of three women producers and did not finance the entire film herself. Hanuman Ansh follows the spiritual journey of a young seeker who becomes Neem Karoli Baba. The film’s own makers describe it not as a conventional biopic or sermon but as a spiritual journey centred upon bhakti, surrender and seva. Its deeper proposition is: what happens when a human being moves beyond the obsession with the self? The answer offered is service and faith. I have watched the film. I congratulate the team of Hanuman Ansh for their faith and courage of conviction.
The story is told with conviction, but there is nothing exceptional in the direction or other cinematic markers.
