The Journey Of Producing Hanuman Ansh: Throwback At The Anupriya Nagar Interview On The Dinis Guarda YouTube Podcast

From a $20 million budget to earning $36.5 billion worldwide, ‘Hanuman Ansh’ is a story of an unlikely theatrical turnaround, audience-led word of mouth, spiritual storytelling and the ambition to reconnect a digital-first generation with India’s civilisational heritage. How can ancient civilisational wisdom remain meaningful to a generation growing up with AI, algorithms and shrinking attention spans? A sneak-peek into the conversation between producer Anupriya Nagar and Dinis Guarda.

Few films illustrate the changing rules of filmmaking better than Hanuman Ansh. The film was released in theatres on 7 August, 2026, facing many challenges typical of a major release.

The film lacked a bankable superstar, had a reported budget of less than ₹2 crore, received modest marketing support, and focused on a spiritual subject centered around Neem Karoli Baba. On its opening day, the film reportedly earned just ₹10 lakh. In its first week, it generated about ₹1.08 crore, but in the second week, earnings plummeted to around ₹40 lakh. At that point, the industry had little reason to anticipate a breakout success.

Hanuman Ansh: From $20 million budget to earning $36.5 billion worldwide

Hanuman Ansh is the story of a grieving boy who seeks God to meet his departed mother. In finding the divine, he learns to serve humanity with miracles of love, food and silent blessings, ultimately becoming Hanuman Ansh, popularly known as Neem Karoli Baba.

After its initial few weeks of low business, the filmmakers almost lost their theatrical release opportunity. Producer Ragini Sona noted that the film began its first week in about 350 theatres, but fierce competition from major releases reduced that number to just 25–30 theatres in the second week. However, the film's earnings did not decline at the same rate. The producers chose to invest a bit more, convincing distributors to keep the film running for another week, giving audiences one more chance to discover it.

That decision changed everything.

In the third week, the collection surged to approximately ₹10.4 crore. By the fourth week, the film increased its showings from around 355 on opening day to over 7,000 shows. This phenomenon wasn't due to marketing efforts attracting an audience before release; rather, the audience itself became the driving force behind the film's marketing after release.

By 22 September, industry-tracked figures revealed a remarkable worldwide gross of around ₹352 crore, showcasing the extraordinary journey of a film made for just around ₹2 crore.

Another layer of the story makes it especially relevant to Gen Z. Anupriya Nagar, just 21, has embarked on a remarkable journey in filmmaking. An economics graduate from the University of Bath, she originally considered a career outside the film industry. However, her curiosity about Neem Karoli Baba sparked during her research on global technology entrepreneurs, where she discovered the fascinating connection between Steve Jobs and Kainchi Dham. Initially, she envisioned creating a book or comic about it, which eventually led her to connect with Chaturvedi's film project.

Anupriya Nagar: The key success element of Hanuman Ansh

Anupriya joined the project during post-production, when additional funding became necessary. For Anupriya Nagar, filmmaking is not simply about entertainment. It is becoming a way of connecting two worlds that are often treated as opposites: an ancient civilisational inheritance built around spirituality, memory and human relationships, and a young generation growing up surrounded by artificial intelligence, social media and digital platforms.

Anupriya, a young producer with a background in economics, art and international education, is behind Hanuman Ansh, a spiritual film inspired by the life and legacy of Neem Karoli Baba. The production forms the first part of a planned trilogy and reflects her ambition to take stories rooted in Indian spiritual traditions beyond their conventional audiences.

In an interview with Dinis Guarda, Anupriya described the project as something deeply connected to her own experience:

My entire team and I have spent an entire year researching going to the locations, talking to people who've actually spent time with the name Karoli Baba. We have so much data that is collected that we can make 10 films. Our director Vishal Chhaturvedi has written a very beautiful book as well on which our movie is based.

Excerpts from Anupriya Nagar interview on the Dinis Guarda YouTube Podcast

Episode #395 of the Dinis Guarda YouTube podcast featured Anupriya Nagar. During the interview Anupriya revealed her vision of making Hanuman Ansh as the medium of connecting the modern generation of children connected to their culture and heritage of spiritual journey:

I live in such a generation that is the first ones to interact with AI, create these virtual agents and an ecosystem of tech. It is also the generation that sits back at 2 a.m. and thinks about their personality and inner peace.
They have questions about their identity as well at the same time because it's very easy to grasp the entire world just from one screen, but to actually reflect is becoming a difficult task for our generation. Nowadays they're calling it wellness and mental health and mental peace but that is on the same basis of our ancient wisdom the spirituality it's again.
I don't think the modern and the ancient thought process are any different; they're literally the same facts and teachings.”

The challenge for any producer working with a spiritual figure is authenticity.

Cinema naturally introduces dramatisation, visual language, music, performance and commercial expectations. But Nagar says the team approached the production with a strong sense of responsibility.

Our film is not only just for people in India but it's for each and every person with the teachings to feed everyone, to serve everyone.
There are certain scenes that everyone will connect to whether you're a mother, teacher or a student or if you're seeking inner peace. Each scene has a message to take away even if it's the smallest one.

Connecting Gen Z with civilisational heritage does not necessarily require presenting tradition as something preserved behind glass. It can involve cinema, music, international distribution, digital platforms and even AI — while keeping the underlying philosophy intact.

I want to take this to all the Gen Z's and even the younger kids because there are very very simple things like no discrimination, you helping out others. I think this can also reach out to each and every school and that is my goal.

For someone trained in economics, commercial performance might seem like an obvious benchmark of success. Anupriya acknowledges the importance of numbers, budgets and returns, but says she evaluates this particular project differently.

If even there is one new person who knows about Baba, who can at least take back one thing from the film, I think that is my return.

She expects the trilogy to occupy the next several years of her life, but she is already thinking beyond it.

Nagar says she increasingly feels drawn to stories about Indian figures and histories that have not received sufficient attention, and wants to research, build teams around them and take those narratives to global audiences.

I feel like we’ve just scratched the surface now. There’s a lot coming in this beautiful journey.

Appreciation by mainstream media and audience for Hanuman Ansh

The audience response has been truly enlightening. Many viewers have celebrated the film's simplicity, sincerity, and emotional depth. The Rotten Tomatoes audience score currently stands at 97% from more than 100 verified ratings, showing its profound impact on a growing number of fans. While some critics point to its episodic structure and a focus on miracle stories over a deeper exploration of Neem Karoli Baba's philosophy, this divergence is powerful: viewers are not simply watching the film. They are engaging in a meaningful dialogue about the essence of spiritual cinema.

The mainstream media noticed a remarkable phenomenon. India Today noted that the film's strength lay not in spectacle, but in its simplicity, while trade analyst Taran Adarsh highlighted the essential connection with the audience as the key to its extraordinary turnaround. Among the most poignant reactions came from within Neem Karoli Baba's family: producer Ragini Sona shared that his daughter, Girija Devi (Amma Ji), has watched the film around 15 times, feeling emotional with every viewing. The lesson from Hanuman Ansh transcends devotional cinema. In an industry often driven by opening weekends, algorithms, stars, and massive promotional budgets, a film initially dismissed was ultimately embraced by audiences in its first fortnight.

For the Gen Z filmmaker, producer or storyteller, that may be the more important signal. The barriers to making something remain high, but the barriers to audiences discovering something genuinely different are changing remarkably fast.