Hanuman Ansh was down from 350 to 25-30 screens after Yash's Toxic release; producer reveals how they fought back
Here's the latest update from the Bollywood world:
Hanuman Ansh has had a surprising run at the ticket-window. 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 movie 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 movie'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.
Adding to this, Hanuman Ansh nearly bowed out after Toxic rollout, but producer Ragini Sona had other plans. Hanuman Ansh was almost out of theatres Ragini recalled how Vishal was travelling with the team to promote the movie when they suddenly found themselves fighting to keep Hanuman Ansh in theatres. With the movie losing many screens, the team had to make a last-minute call about whether to continue its run for another week.
Meanwhile, She shared 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 movie's business remained steady. That gave the team enough confidence to take a chance and continue its theatrical run.
Notably, In conversation with Screen, she shared, “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 rolled out, 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 shared 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 movie goes on for one more week. It went on for one more week, and the rest is history.”
As per the latest buzz, With Yash-starrer Toxic hitting theatres, Hanuman Ansh faced even tougher competition. The two films were soon being compared at the ticket-window, but Ragini shared the team never saw it as a direct clash or wanted to treat the releases as a competition.
In further updates, 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.
On top of that, Ragini stressed that the team never saw Toxic as a movie they had to defeat. For them, both films could have a successful theatrical run, and the success of a big rollout would ultimately help the industry as a whole.
She added, “Having shared 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 movie industry that will collectively gain. This was our wish. This Toxic vs Hanuman Ansh was created by the people and the media. But we never thought that we would be able to survive even one day opposite Toxic . We thought that our movie will work steadily alongside Toxic, and this will be our journey together.”
Source: Hindustan Times