“Reel Deal: The Sleeper Hit Has Left The Building; Is Becoming A Norm”, News18, 20 Sep 2026.

“Hanuman Ansh and Main Vaapas Aaunga seem to be reviving an old Bollywood phenomenon — and making the middle ground interesting again

A ₹10-lakh opening is usually enough for the trade to start writing the obituary, but… Hanuman Ansh had other plans.

The ₹2-crore devotional drama opened at around ₹10 lakh and lost screens sharply in week two. By familiar Bollywood logic, that should have been the end. Instead, people started talking. Shows were added, collections climbed, and by September, Hanuman Ansh had crossed ₹300 crore worldwide and was still running.

Before that, came Imtiaz Ali’s Partition drama Main Vaapas Aaunga, which opened at just over ₹1 crore before its second weekend jumped by more than 100 per cent. Its Tuesday collection later exceeded its opening day. Vedang Raina said audiences had “advocated” for the film when its marketing struggled to cut through……..”

Read the full article at News18.