No one expected Hanuman Ansh to do the size of business it has done. It opened in the first week of August in about 250 theatres and faced stiff competition from Awarapan 2 and Batwara 1947. In the first week, it grossed just over a crore. The number of screenings dropped dramatically in week two as exhibitors removed the film from their marquee schedules, screening it on only 40 screens. It had begun as a film quietly on the way out, until word of mouth started circulating about the subject of the film – the life of saint Neem Karoli Baba, whose followers include Julia Roberts and Virat Kohli, and who has drawn Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg to his ashram at Kainchi Dham. Distributor Cinepolis picked up on the increased interest in the third week, screening it again and adding more shows. Hanuman Ansh has since been released on over 2,000 screens across the country within a month of its release.

It is impossible to ignore the returns on the film, which made for a cost of just over 2 crore, less than the budget of many songs in a Hindi film. Hanuman Ansh crossed 100 crore net in domestic collections by the fifth week and crossed 200 crore gross worldwide by mid-September. Hombale Films acquired its overseas rights, with its international launch on September 11. Trade analysts have named Hanuman Ansh as one of the highest return-on-investment films in Indian cinema history, comparable with Jai Santoshi Maa, a 1975’s devotional classic that Hanuman Ansh keeps being compared with due to its story treatment and themes.

What is more surprising is the run of the film. Hindi films usually make most of their money in the opening weekend and taper out quickly. Hanuman Ansh did the opposite, with its collections rising day by day and hitting new records. It has set the fifth-Monday and fifth-Wednesday collections for Hindi films, both higher than Dhurandhar. It has been a steady run despite the competition from films like Toxic, Awarapan 2 and Batwara 1947. Trade analysts have said that no one expected this run and it was completely surprising, with Kamal Gianchandani of PVR INOX noting that “no one saw this coming”, and that they were prepared to pull the film off theatre marquee screens in the third week, only for it to transform into a blockbuster by the fourth and fifth weeks. Executives of Cinepolis have noted that people were not buying tickets just because it was a devotional film. They found something compelling in the story of the film.

What does this say about the industry?

The film confirms the age-old notion that a film with a sizeable production budget and star appeal may not be the only one that pulls audiences to theatre. Hanuman Ansh lacks both, and has a cast of lesser-known names like Shobhinaw Satyaa, Chandan Anand, Purnima Tiwari and Vihaan Shedge, and yet it penetrated itself in the audiences consciousness in a very fine manner. Its appeal was in its subject matter, which resonated with audiences. The story of saint Neem Karoli Baba has emotional appeal for a large number of people, and it’s showing in the exceptional footfalls the film is generating.

The phenomenon is also a sign that audiences want to feel connected with films on a more personal level, and that they are willing to watch a film outside of their genre preference. Film historians note that spiritual and mythological cinema has always had its share in Indian movie culture. There is a need for films that speak on a deeply personal level, as opposed to those that offer spectacle.

The film has given rise to a frenzy producers are rushing to make devotional films now, with multiple reports indicating that several production houses are already on the lookout to make a devotional film to the same tune as Hanuman Ansh. The trade logic is simple: if a film without the name value of its cast and a minuscule production budget can do this well, imagine what the same kind of film would do with the backing of a big production house. The wave of films that are likely to follow in the wake of Hanuman Ansh will not necessarily follow the same approach of low-budget and word-of-mouth marketing, but it has demonstrated that there is an appetite for devotional cinema among Indian audiences.

Right now, it has managed to shake up the entire industry by changing the way people think about what will get them to walk into a theater.