The box office is currently throwing up some unexpected trends, and filmmaker Anubhav Sinha believes there is a larger story behind the success of two very different films. While ‘Mirzapur The Movie’ has registered a strong opening and is showing further growth on Saturday, the tiny-budget ‘Hanuman Ansh’ has emerged as a surprise hit, even overtaking the much bigger release ‘Toxic A FairyTale for GrownUps’ on a recent day.Anubhav took note of the performances of both films and shared his thoughts on X, congratulating the team of ‘Mirzapur The Movie’. He wrote, “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.”The filmmaker’s comments come as both movies continue to challenge conventional box-office expectations in very different ways. Anubhav, who began his career with commercial action and romantic films, later moved towards socially and politically driven cinema. His acclaimed filmography includes ‘Assi’, ‘Bheed’, ‘Thappad’, ‘Anek’ and ‘Mulk’.Now in its 30th day, ‘Hanuman Ansh’ has turned into one of the most surprising theatrical successes of recent times. The film has reportedly collected around Rs 94 crore net in India and is expected to cross the Rs 100 crore mark by Sunday.The film’s journey is particularly noteworthy given its reported budget of just Rs 2 crore. ‘Hanuman Ansh’ had an extremely modest opening, collecting only Rs 10 lakh on its first day. However, after completing three weeks in theatres, the film began witnessing a remarkable turnaround.Its fourth weekend proved to be particularly strong, with the film collecting Rs 28 crore net in India. While Monday did not bring a major drop, Tuesday produced an even bigger surprise. On its 26th day, ‘Hanuman Ansh’ recorded a 54% jump in collections, earning Rs 8.50 crore net in India.Interestingly, ‘Hanuman Ansh’ managed to outpace ‘Toxic’ on the same day. The latter collected Rs 8.20 crore despite being a much larger release, running in five languages and playing across more than 1,500 additional screens.Meanwhile, ‘Mirzapur The Movie’ has successfully carried the popularity of the Prime Video series into cinemas. Starring Pankaj Tripathi, Ali Fazal, Divyenndu and Jitendra Kumar, the film opened at Rs 24.75 crore in India on Friday.The opening puts ‘Mirzapur The Movie’ among the biggest non-star-led opening days in Bollywood. It has also surpassed the first-day collections of recent sleeper hits such as ‘Saiyaara’, which earned Rs 22 crore, and ‘Awarapan 2’, which opened at Rs 21.50 crore.The film brings several familiar faces from the series to the big screen. Ali Fazal, Pankaj Tripathi and Divyenndu reprise their popular characters, while Jitendra Kumar joins the franchise as Bablu Pandit, taking over the role previously played by Vikrant Massey.Ravi Kishan has been added as a new face to the franchise, while Abhishek Banerjee, Rasika Dugal, Sheeba Chadha, Rajesh Tailang, Shriya Pilgaonkar, Harshita Shekhar Gaur and Shweta Tripathi return to their respective roles.With ‘Mirzapur The Movie’ enjoying a powerful start and ‘Hanuman Ansh’ continuing its extraordinary run after an almost unnoticed opening, Anubhav Sinha’s observation about the box office telling a larger story has certainly struck a chord.
