A Hindi devotional drama that opened to almost no fanfare has pulled off one of the most improbable box office turnarounds in recent memory. According to trade tracker Sacnilk, cited by film analyst Taran Adarsh on X, Hanuman Ansh crossed the Rs 100 crore mark in net India collections on its 31st day — a Sunday — capping what he called an “unbelievable, unimaginable, unprecedented” run and its highest-grossing weekend yet.
From Rs 10 lakh to Rs 100 crore
The film, directed by Vishal Chaturvedi and made on a reported budget of just Rs 2 crore, released on August 7 without any pre-release promotion or buzz. Its opening day collection was a modest Rs 10 lakh, and its India net collection stood at just Rs 1.48 crore after two weeks.
The turnaround began in week three. According to Sacnilk, the film collected Rs 10.40 crore during its third week alone, several times what it had earned in its first fortnight. The momentum only built from there — by day 26, the film had recorded a domestic gross collection of Rs 63.82 crore, and by day 27 its India net collection stood at Rs 61.38 crore, with domestic gross at Rs 72.32 crore.
A particularly striking data point came on its fourth Sunday: the film amassed Rs 12.75 crore net across 5,363 screens, the first time it had crossed the Rs 10 crore mark in a single day. Trade watchers noted that this single-day haul alone surpassed what the film had collected across its entire first three weeks combined.
A story rooted in Neem Karoli Baba
The film is a biopic centred on the life and teachings of Neem Karoli Baba, the spiritual figure associated with Kainchi Dham in Uttar Pradesh, whose followers are said to have included global names like Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg. It stars Chandan Anand and Shobhinav Satyaa, alongside Nikhil Dubey, Udaysinh Rajput, Purnima Tiwari, Mannish Chaudhary and Anil Rastogi.
Blockbuster status, several times over
With a production cost of roughly Rs 2 crore, the film had already recovered its budget many times over well before the Rs 100 crore milestone. Trade observers had earlier speculated a lifetime total in the Rs 80–90 crore range, but the film’s late surge — including outperforming bigger releases like Toxic on multiple days — has pushed it well past that mark, entering rare territory for a small-budget, no-promotion release.
The film’s run is now being described in trade circles as one of 2026’s most unexpected success stories, driven almost entirely by word-of-mouth rather than star power or marketing spend.
