Hanuman Ansh, mounted on a mere Rs 2 crore budget, has already etched its name in India’s cinematic history. With its worldwide gross box office of over Rs 400 crore, the devotional drama inspired by the life of the popular mystic Neem Karoli Baba has sprung a massive surprise this year.
Hanuman Ansh is directed by Vishal Charturvedi, who has also produced the film along with Ragini Sona, Namrata G Singh, and Anupriya A Nagar. Mahaveer Jain, Piyush Thakur, and Rishi Pathak have served as co-producers.
In an interview with NDTV India’s Meenakshi Kandwal, Hanuman Ansh producer Ragini Sona recalled meeting Neem Karoli Baba, whose real name was Lakshman Narayan Sharma, in her childhood. The Lucknow-based producer, who referred to the mystic as ‘kambal wale baba‘, remembered him as “jovial and witty”.
“As kids, we used to go to Baba’s mandir in Nainital for a picnic. We knew that there sits a ‘kambal wale baba‘. We used to sit with him and take the prashad too,” the producer said.
Ragini Sona then recounted how Neem Karoli Baba playfully beat up her and other children for taking too much of his time.
“When we would be sitting with them for far too long, he would hit us playfully with gitti (crushed stone) or whatever he could find. It was our belief that whoever would be hit with that gitti will score the best marks in exams. That one gitti that Baba threw at me became Hanuman Ansh for me today,” she remembered thanking the spiritual guru.
On the show, the producer was joined by Hanuman Ansh star Shobhinaw Satyaa, who is overwhelmed by all the love and blessings coming his way after he immortalised the role of Neem Karoli Baba in the film.
Last week, Hanuman Ansh director Vishal Chaturvedi performed the film’s popular song Parvati at a bhajan-clubbing event in Delhi which was also attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In a previous interview, Hanuman Ansh director told NDTV that he has stopped tracking box office numbers of the film.
He said, “By God’s grace, the film is doing well. Initially, we were tracking the number of tickets sold and how many crores it was collecting every day. But now I feel the film has gone into the hands of the audience, and they are taking it wherever they want to,” Vishal Chaturvedi had said.
“I feel that this has gone beyond numbers and has reached people’s awareness and emotions. I don’t want to target or limit the film to any particular number. I feel both things are limitless. Wherever Maharaj Ji is concerned, everything becomes limitless. So I’m not looking at it in terms of numbers anymore,” he added.
