Hanuman Ansh, produced for just 2 crore rupees, has now made over 250 crore. And there is a legal reason it could tell this story so cheaply.
The first is a marketing miracle. The second is a quiet point of law. Let me take both.
It is a devotional drama about Neem Karoli Baba, made by a first-time filmmaker, Vishal Chaturvedi, from his own book. It opened on August 7 to a day-one collection of just ten lakh. Almost nobody knew it existed.
Then, with no money for promotion, something rare happened. From week two, people who had watched it began posting honest reviews on Instagram and X. Clips of emotional scenes spread as reels. Empty halls started filling, new cities booked shows, and by day 24 it was earning more in a day than in its entire first week.
Now here is the part that interests me as a lawyer. This is a film about a real man, and Neem Karoli Baba died in 1973. To film a living person, you usually have to buy their life rights, take their consent, and guard against claims over their privacy and image. That costs real money. But as a lawyer, here is what many people miss: Indian courts have held that a person's personality, publicity and privacy rights die with them. They are not inherited by the family.
The Delhi High Court said exactly that in the Sushant Singh Rajput case. His own father could not stop a film about him, because those rights ended with his son, and the story was already public. So for a saint who passed away half a century ago, whose life lives in books and devotee accounts, there were no rights left to buy. In law, that story was free to tell.
And that is my honest takeaway as a lawyer. A great product spreads when people feel something and sell it for you. But the reason this one could be made so cheaply is legal. The living own their story. The long gone, already public, belong to everyone.
To sum up, Hanuman Ansh offers two important lessons for us. First, audiences can become a film’s most powerful marketing force when a story genuinely resonates with them, proving that a modest budget does not necessarily limit commercial success. Second, the law can shape production costs in ways that are often overlooked. For filmmakers, it is important to understand the legal position on personality rights, privacy and biographical storytelling. And how these can make a significant difference between when a project is conceived and executed. Sometimes, the biggest advantage lies not in spending more, but in understanding the legal framework within which a story can be told.
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