‘Hanuman Ansh has demonstrated that content is king, and the audience is the ultimate judge.’
IMAGE: Shobhinaw Satyaa as Neeb Karori Baba in Hanuman Ansh.
Key Points
- Hanuman Ansh has achieved massive box office success, proving that content and audience connection are more crucial than large budgets and star power.
- Audiences are increasingly seeking authentic, relatable, and high-concept storytelling, growing tired of generic action sequences and thin plots in big-budget spectacles.
- Filmmakers and industry experts emphasise that genuine post-show recommendations and social media buzz are vital for the success of smaller films, creating an unstoppable box office run.
Hanuman Ansh is creating havoc at the boxoffice.
Its success goes to prove, content is the ultimate equaliser in cinema, proving time and again that a massive marketing budget and superstar salaries cannot replace a deeply relatable story.
While heavy-duty, multi-crore visual spectacles dominate the headlines, tight, low-budget underdogs quietly step in, leverage strong word-of-mouth, and capture the hearts and wallets of the audience.
This sleeper-hit box-office phenomenon is thriving. When audiences face inflated ticket prices and generic, formulaic blockbusters, they actively look for rooted, emotional, or high-concept storytelling.
Big-budget spectacles often rely heavily on generic action sequences and formulas. Audiences are growing tired of thin plots hidden behind expensive CGI.
Smaller films like Laapata Ladies, Awarapan 2 or the Tamil sleeper hit Tourist Family thrive as they offer authentic, close-to-home human dynamics, humour, or nostalgia.
Without hundreds of crores to splash on aggressive pre-release marketing, these films rely entirely on genuine post-show recommendations.
A positive chain reaction on social media creates an unstoppable box office run.
‘There will always be that one low cost film that punches far above its weight’
Trade Guru Taran Adarsh feels the sleeper hit is an integral part of the boxoffice heritage.
“Hanuman Ansh is a shining example of this very phenomenon. At a time when films mounted on massive budgets, with hundreds of crores invested, dominate the conversation, a modestly budgeted film like Hanuman Ansh has quietly emerged as a historic blockbuster purely on the strength of its content and audience connect.
“This is what makes the boxoffice so fascinating. You can spend ₹200 crore-₹300 crore, but you cannot buy audiences’ love.
“When a film strikes the right chord, word-of-mouth takes over, families come to theatres and the film keeps growing week after week.
IMAGE: Shobhinaw Satyaa in Hanuman Ansh.
“Hanuman Ansh has demonstrated that content is king, and the audience is the ultimate judge. Big-budget spectacles will always have their place, but there will always be that one low cost film that punches far above its weight and walks away with the biggest victory. Hanuman Ansh is that film right now.”
Ankit Sakhiya, director of Laalo Shree Krishna Sada Sahaayate, which collected over ₹100 crores on an investment of ₹50 lakhs never imagined his film would be such a success.
“I didn’t think it would have such a big impact. Yes, it was clear that if a good film is made, it will reach people. It was clear that if a good film is made, people will like it. If people come to see it, they will like it. But the impact it had on people, I never thought it would be like this.
“So much footfall was generated in the theatres. Some theatres which were closed in Gujarat came to life with Laalo: Shree Krishna Sada Sahayate.
“The single screens, they all came to life. This kind of success happens once in a while. The formula of a sleeper hit is to make a film from your heart. It will a hundred percent touch the audiences’ hearts.”
Actor Rana Daggubati, who has recently supported two striking offbeat films Sagar Bondi and Last Man In Tower, feels such small gems need support from voices that can be heard.
“I’d love it if many more filmmakers come and do this who are in the mainstream world and yet championing cinema like this.
“But again, it comes to me from a personal choice, because I enjoyed watching these type of films when I was growing up. And I thought it was important to show the audience the same. And see, commercial cinema already has a certain fixed format that it follows, whether it’s of promotion, of release, of audiences.
“But I think it’s a slightly bigger challenge or a bigger mountain to climb when it is slightly more alternative cinema. But the fact that these films are going abroad winning awards across the globe should mean for something.”
‘A small film needs a tremendous amount of luck’
Producer, director writer Vikram Bhatt, who made the sleeper hit Raaz in 2002, feels such underdogs are the survival kit of the boxoffice.
“I think there is a certain amount of survivorship bias in that perception. Every year, dozens of small films are made for two or three crores.
“Nearly half of them remain in the cans even after they are completed because nobody is willing to invest in their publicity and distribution, and no digital or satellite platform is interested in buying them.
“So the two- or three-crore films that eventually reach the audience and succeed are actually very rare exceptions.
“A small film begins with enormous disadvantages: It gets very few shows, almost no publicity, and barely any time to build an audience. It also needs a tremendous amount of luck.
“It must arrive during a relatively weak week so that people notice it, and then somehow hold on to enough shows to get a second week in which word of mouth can grow.
“On the other hand, even a 100 crore film that is heavily criticised and rejected by audiences can still collect ₹150 crore because of its scale, stars, marketing and initial reach.
“A small film may struggle to reach even ₹20 crore or ₹30 crore, and we will celebrate it as a major success. Therefore, we are not really comparing like with like.
“We notice the handful of small films that break through, but we forget the many that never even get a proper release. So I don’t believe this proves that small films have suddenly replaced big films.
“These successes are wonderful, but statistically, they are still rare — and may ultimately prove to be more of a flash in the pan than a lasting shift in the business.”
Producer Vikram Malhotra caps the discussion with a cautionary but optimistic view of the underdog tales.
“In the business of storytelling, the power of the wallet will never be more important than the power of the story.
“Scale of imagination can beat depth of pockets every single time. At the core, audiences are looking for something very simple — a story that connects, engages and entertains.
“Everything else, whether it is stars, spectacle, technology or production scale, is ultimately a layer on top of that. In fact, smaller budgets can sometimes be liberating for talented filmmakers.
“They allow creators to operate fearlessly with fewer conventional commercial pressures, take sharper creative risks and tell distinctive stories.
“I’ve seen that first-hand with films like Jalsa, Sukhee and Chhorii, and even earlier with films such as Pyaar Ka Punchnama, Kahaani and Queen.
“In each case, it was ultimately the size of the heart and the strength of the idea that mattered more than the size of the budget. And when such films connect, they can connect huge.
“The upside can be significant and the return on investment exponentially higher because the economics start from a much more efficient base. But I would also caution against turning this into a ‘small film versus big film’ argument.
“Budget by itself is never a determinant of success. A ₹20 crore film can fail just as easily as a ₹200 crore film. In the end, the real currency of our business remains the same — the power of the story and the conviction and vision of the storyteller.”
Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff
