Hanuman Ansh was down from 350 to 25-30 screens after Yash's Toxic release; producer reveals how they fought back

Hanuman Ansh has had a surprising run at the box office. The Vishal Chaturvedi directorial opened on a limited number of screens and soon found itself competing with bigger releases, including Yash-starrer Toxic . Yet, the film managed to hold on in theatres even when its screen count dropped sharply. In a recent interview, producer Ragini Sona spoke about the uncertainty around the film's theatrical journey, including the point when the team was almost ready to let it go, and why they ultimately decided to fight for another week.

Ragini recalled how Vishal was travelling with the team to promote the film when they suddenly found themselves fighting to keep Hanuman Ansh in theatres. With the film losing many screens, the team had to make a last-minute call about whether to continue its run for another week.

She said the first week was more or less what the team had expected. Hanuman Ansh opened across 350 theatres, but its screen count took a major hit in the second week with the arrival of Awarapan 2 and Toxic. It was reduced to around 25-30 theatres, but the film's business remained steady. That gave the team enough confidence to take a chance and continue its theatrical run.

Speaking to Screen, she said, “The first week was normal, which we thought would happen. In the first week, we started with 350 theatres. In the second week, just because of two more big films ( Awarapan 2 and Toxic ) that had released, we came down to 25-30 theatres, which was too much of a downfall, but the business of Hanuman Ansh didn't fall, which was the only ray of hope for us, but still, we were a bit divided. At the last moment, Vishal and I decided that we wanted to go ahead, and we told this to our distributors, and they also said that it was okay. It took us some time to convince everybody else, but they were eventually convinced, and we then went ahead with more theatres in the next week, and there was a small spend also in that. We discussed that all of the expenses will be covered if the film goes on for one more week. It went on for one more week, and the rest is history.”

With Yash-starrer Toxic hitting theatres, Hanuman Ansh faced even tougher competition. The two films were soon being compared at the box office, but Ragini said the team never saw it as a direct clash or wanted to treat the releases as a competition.

When asked if the clash with Toxic made the team nervous, she admitted there was some fear. They often reminded each other of a dialogue from Hanuman Ansh, “Hanuman Chaalisa padhte ho, phir bhi darte ho? (You are scared despite reading the Hanuman Chaalisa?)” Whenever the pressure got to them, the team would repeat the line to each other and leave the rest to their faith in Baba.

Ragini stressed that the team never saw Toxic as a film they had to defeat. For them, both films could have a successful theatrical run, and the success of a big release would ultimately help the industry as a whole.

She added, “Having said that, we never wanted Toxic to do badly. We wanted all films to have a good run because if Toxic does well, it is the film industry that will collectively gain. This was our wish.