Hanuman Ansh director Dr Vishal Chaturvedi on success: Neem Karoli Baba's story, honest presentation, and word-of-mouth
Here's the latest update from the Bollywood world:
Starting at 250 theaters and coming down to 25 in a week and now running in 1,200 screens in the fourth week, doctor-turned-debutant writer-filmmaker Dr Vishal Chaturvedi’s Hanuman Ansh on Neem Karoli Baba is doing wonders at the ticket-window.
Adding to this, Dr Vishal Chaturvedi and (right) a still from the movie Hanuman Ansh Calling it “magical, divine and driven by the audience,” he says, “At ₹ 1.7Cr we just wanted the audience to watch and the investment to return but it did wonders (according to data ₹ 45Cr only in India and counting). We have stopped looking at collections and counting the blessings, appreciation and love.”
Meanwhile, Vishal is himself surprised with the “grace.” He says, “I guess what worked in the movie primarily is Baba’s divine story (played by star Shobhinaw Satyaa), music and the actors and makers who are very emotional about the subject. We hardly did any promotion and PR as we did not have any budget, but the audience played the role of PR with word-of-mouth and posting on social media. The audience have driven the movie on their shoulders.”
Notably, View this post on Instagram A post shared by Dr Vishal Chaturvedi (@filmervishal)
As per the latest buzz, He recalled how August 15 big releases hit them. “For both big films ( Batwara 1947 and Awarapan 2 ) our shows were reduced to just 25 screens but they kept running well. The audience wanted to watch but there were no shows, so people travelled 200-250 kms and posted on SM. There were videos that even after the movie ended the audience were so emotional that they did not get up from their seats. Probably that all worked which no PR can do.”
In further updates, After the shows were reduced, they did a road trip from Mumbai. “We went to Rajkot, Surat, Ahmedabad and even small towns where we met the audience, local media and cinema owners. We did not have funds, so we amplified it on social media, and it was boosted by content creators and users with very emotional reels. It organically became widely shared and shows increased,” he says.
On top of that, The movie has been shot in Chitrakoot and has used Braj, Awadhi and Bundeli language to connect with the wider audience, he says.
A Lucknowite, Vishal completed his MBBS from Gorakhpur in 2006 and in the same year was posted in Haldwani when he got introduced to Baba and went to his ashram in Kainchi Dham ( Uttarakhand ) where he became a bhakt.
Source: Hindustan Times