‘Mirzapur and Hanuman Ansh are not freak hits’: Anubhav Sinha wants industry to note these box office successes

Mirzapur The Movie released last Friday, while Hanuman Ansh emerged as a surprise box office sensation after hitting theatres in August.

Mirzapur The Movie had a bumper start at the box office on Friday and is showing growth on Saturday. Meanwhile, in the last week, a tiny film called Hanuman Ansh has taken the box office by storm and outpaced even a big release like Toxic A FairyTale for GrownUps. Filmmaker Anubhav Sinha has noted the box office success stories of both these releases and posted on his X account. (Also read: Hanuman Ansh, tiny ₹2 crore film with no stars, beats Yash's ₹500 crore Toxic at the box office in shock upset)

Mirzapur The Movie and Hanuman Ansh have been successful at the box office.

What Anubhav said

Taking to X, he said, "Congratulations Team Mirzapur!!! Well done.

The Box Office is telling us all a story if we watch carefully. Mirzapur and Hanuman Ansh are not freak hits. It is easy to draw simplistic conclusions and dangerous too."

Deep Dive

Why did Anubhav Sinha highlight Mirzapur and Hanuman Ansh as significant box office successes?

How did Hanuman Ansh manage to increase its box office collections over time?

What does the success of Mirzapur The Movie indicate about the current trends in Bollywood?

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Anubhav is a filmmaker who transitioned from early commercial action and romantic movies to acclaimed socio-political dramas. His films include Assi, Bheed, Thappad, Anek and Mulk.

About Hanuman Ansh

Now on its 30th day of release, Hanuman Ansh has so far collected ₹94 crore at the box office and will cross the ₹100 crore by Sunday. Made on a budget of just ₹2 crore, Hanuman Ansh had an inauspicious start at the box office, earning only ₹10 lakh on its opening day. But it was after it completed three weeks in theatres that the film began to pick up.

In its fourth weekend, Hanuman Ansh raked in ₹28 crore net in India. On Monday, it avoided a huge drop, but its performance on Tuesday raised quite a few eyebrows. On Tuesday, its 26th day in theatres, Hanuman Ansh registered a 54% jump in collections, netting ₹8.50 crore in India. On the same day, Toxic, the recent big release, managed only ₹8.20 crore, despite running in five languages and over 1500 more screens than Hanuman Ansh.

About Mirzapur The Movie

Pankaj Tripathi, Ali Fazal, Divyenndu, and Jitendra Kumar headline this film spinoff of the Amazon Prime Video series, Mirzapur. The film shattered expectations to open at ₹24.75 crore on Friday in India, one of the biggest non-star-led openings ever in Bollywood history. Mirzapur's opening day has seen it outgross recent sleeper hits such as Saiyaara ( ₹22 crore) and Awarapan 2 ( ₹21.50 crore).

Apart from Ali Fazal, Pankaj Tripathi and Divyenndu, the film introduces Jitendra Kumar, who takes over from Vikrant Massey as Bablu Pandit. Ravi Kishan stars as a new face, while Abhishek Banerjee, Rasika Dugal, Sheeba Chadha, Rajesh Tailang, Shriya Pilgaonkar, Harshita Shekhar Gaur, and Shweta Tripathi reprise their roles from the show.