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Director Vishal Chaturvedi’s latest release Hanuman Ansh, inspired by the life of spiritual guru Neem Karoli Baba, has emerged as a sleeper hit. Made at a budget of just Rs 2 crore, the devotional drama has already surpassed the Rs 50 crore milestone in India.

Hanuman Ansh is set in 20th-century India and follows Lakshman Das from his childhood and spiritual awakening to his transformation into the man who would later be known as Neem Karoli Baba. The film explores his devotion to Lord Hanuman and his belief in love, compassion and selfless service.

Neem Karoli Baba was a Hindu spiritual teacher and devotee of Lord Hanuman. His birth name was Lakshman Narayan Sharma, and he was born around 1900 in Akbarpur village in Uttar Pradesh. He died on September 11, 1973, in Vrindavan. However, his teachings and influence continue to endure. Kainchi Dham in Uttarakhand remains the place most closely associated with him.

Several stories of miracles and other extraordinary incidents are associated with him, many of which were passed down by his followers. His life did not conform to that of a conventional religious leader. He spent years wandering as a sadhu before eventually returning to family life. The core of his teachings centred on love, compassion, devotion and selfless service.

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Neem Karoli Baba’s influence gradually spread beyond India through his devotees abroad. One of the most important followers was American spiritual teacher Ram Dass, born as Richard Alpert. He was a Harvard psychologist before visiting India and meeting Neem Karoli Baba. He wrote his experiences in the book Be Here Now, which helped introduce Baba to a global audience.

Many known personalities have been inspired by the leader, including Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who travelled to India in the 1970s and visited Kainchi Dham, although Neem Karoli Baba had died before he arrived. During an interview with Playboy in 1985, Jobs talked about how it changed his perspective and described coming back to the US as a bigger “culture shock” than going to India. Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg also visited Kainchi Dham temple when Facebook was going through a difficult period, and the trip helped him reconnect with the brand’s goal.

Hollywood actor Julia Roberts has also opened up about being drawn to Neem Karoli Baba, after seeing his picture. In an interview with George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America, she revealed feeling strongly drawn to his photograph, despite knowing nothing about him at that time.

Hanuman Ansh director Vishal Chaturvedi reacted to the film’s box office performance. During an interview with ANI, Vishal said, “As far as declaring to people that it is a flop film, I feel that there should be some standards in the industry. As long as a film is still in theatres and its theatrical run is not complete, declaring it a hit or a flop is premature.”

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He further added, “I feel that as long as the public is with you, your film will remain a hit, because so many people are loving it and talking about it. I used to feel that the film will be a hit and it will complete its run in two and a half months. In the second week, the collections were more than the number of theatres we had. We had 25 theatres, but we were getting almost the same collection that we were getting from 250 theatres in the first week.”

Vishal Chaturvedi also spoke about the challenges the team faced in keeping the film in theatres despite shows being sold out, as theatre owners prioritised bigger releases such as Emraan Hashmi’s Awarapan 2 and Yash-starrer Toxic. “The theatre owners had two other big films. They were putting up their shows. Because they were getting pushed from there, and they were taking out our film. They didn’t have any other way, but when all the shows were sold out, a crisis situation was created,” he said.

The director continued, “At the same time, our team, all the people in our production team, all the people left their places, and we started covering each and every theatre. We even started our journey from Gujarat to Surat, Baroda, Ahmedabad; from there, Rajkot, then Morbi. After that, we reached Rajasthan, and we went to Jodhpur, Jaipur, Udaipur and other places.”

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