The Neem Karoli Baba biopic Hanuman Ansh has turned into one of the year's most unexpected box office stories, quietly crossing the 80 crore rupee mark after opening to almost no attention. Few in the trade had given the film much of a chance when it first hit screens, yet it now stands among the year's most talked-about theatrical successes. Behind that turnaround lies a bitter memory for director Vishal Chaturvedi, who says a major OTT platform once treated his pitch for this very story with open disrespect.
A pitch met with cold dismissal
Chaturvedi has recalled that when he took the story of Neem Karoli Baba to a leading OTT platform, the response left him shaken. He had narrated the tale with such emotion that his eyes welled up during the pitch, yet it barely moved the people listening to him. The platform's representatives told him the subject, while rooted in India, could only really work for an international audience, a roundabout way of suggesting the story wasn't strong enough to stand on its own. For a filmmaker who had poured himself emotionally into the narration, the clinical brush-off was hard to forget.
"There is a way to say no"
Recalling the exchange, the director said
Rejection is nothing new for a filmmaker, but there is still a certain decency to saying no.
He explained that being turned down is routine for anyone in his line of work, and every creator learns to live with it over time. What stung, he said, was the tone and language used against him, which felt dismissive rather than respectful of the effort he had put in. In his experience, most rejections come wrapped in courtesy, with a team saying the idea is good but not right for them at that moment; this meeting, he felt, was something else entirely.
A moment that hardened his resolve
According to Chaturvedi, the way the conversation unfolded made it obvious that a fixed mindset about Indian spiritual subjects had taken root among the people he was pitching to. That realisation became something of a turning point for him, convincing him that such attitudes needed to be challenged rather than accepted quietly. The frustration of that meeting, he suggested, is part of what kept him pushing to get this story made and eventually released on the big screen, rather than shelved after one bad experience.
A slow start that turned into a box office surprise
Hanuman Ansh opened in theatres on August 7 to a muted response, earning just 10 lakh rupees on its very first day. The struggle continued through its opening week, when total collections stayed around 1.80 crore rupees, and worsened further in the second week, when earnings dropped to just 40 lakh rupees, leading many to write the film off entirely. The third week changed everything. Word of mouth began pulling in crowds, shows started running houseful across centres, and the film's fortunes reversed dramatically within days. By the 29th day of its release, Hanuman Ansh had earned 82.88 crore rupees in India, turning a shaky start into one of the year's more remarkable box office recoveries.
The episode is a reminder that streaming platforms can still be hesitant about India's devotional and spiritual stories, even as audiences in theatres embrace them wholeheartedly once given the chance. For Chaturvedi, the experience has become a lesson in staying committed to a story worth telling, regardless of how it is first received, and the film's eventual numbers have only strengthened that belief.
