‘Never thought that we would survive even one day opposite Toxic’: Hanuman Ansh producer

Producer Ragini Sona opens up about going up against Toxic in theatres. (Photos: Vishal Chaturvedi and Yash/Instagram)

Hanuman Ansh has emerged as one of the biggest surprises at the box office this year. The Vishal Chaturvedi directorial, which opened on a limited number of screens, has continued its theatrical run despite competition from bigger releases, including the Yash-starrer Toxic. In an exclusive interview with SCREEN, producer Ragini Sona opened up about the film’s difficult theatrical journey and revealed how she and Vishal fought for more shows when the film was on the verge of being pulled from theatres.

Hanuman Ansh was almost out of theatres

Ragini Sona recalled how Vishal Chaturvedi was travelling with the team to promote Hanuman Ansh when they were faced with the possibility of losing their theatrical run. She said, “Vishal was out with the team on a road journey to promote the film. He said, ‘We are going to be out there, in the theatre, with the people. This is our journey.’ And, I was a bit emotional, and I said, ‘You cannot do this.’ At that time, the movie was almost out of theatres. Just a few hours before in the night, we decided to continue.”

The producer explained that while the first week performed as expected, the film witnessed a sharp drop in the number of theatres in its second week.

“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 released, 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 said 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 film goes on for one more week. It went on for one more week, and the rest is history.”

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‘We never thought that we would be able to survive even one day opposite Toxic’

Hanuman Ansh also had to hold its ground against Toxic, a much bigger production led by Yash. While the two films were eventually discussed as box-office competitors, Ragini Sona said the team never approached the situation as a fight between the two films.

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Asked whether they were apprehensive about going up against Toxic, Ragini said, “There is a dialogue in our film, ‘Hanuman Chaalisa padhte ho, phir bhi darte ho?’ (You read Hanuman Chaalisa, and yet you fear?) So, we all were telling this dialogue to each other because somewhere or the other there was this slight fear. People who are connected with this film and had faith, we had totally surrendered to Baba.”

She continued, “Having said 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 film 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 film will work steadily alongside Toxic and this will be our journey together.”

Hanuman Ansh box office collection 

Hanuman Ansh released in theatres on August 7, 2026. As of Day 43, Hanuman Ansh has grossed over Rs 293.30 crore in India. The worldwide gross collection stands at 316.30 crore.

The film stars Shobhinaw Satyaa, Vihaan Shedge, Chandan Anand, Purnima Tiwari, Anil Rastogi and Gulshan Pandey, among others. Vishal Chaturvedi has written and directed the film.