By:

Kiran D. Tare

21 August 2024 at 4:53:13 pm

From Doctor to Box-Office Disruptor

Vishal Chaturvedi has turned a deeply personal spiritual story into one of 2026’s biggest box-office surprises. In an industry where films routinely arrive with star salaries running into crores, lavish sets and multi-crore marketing campaigns, Hanuman Ansh is a striking anomaly. Made on a shoestring budget reportedly in the region of Rs. 2 crore, the ‘spiritual’ film opened last month to a modest box-office collection. Within weeks, however, audiences began taking a shine to the film with...

min read

Vishal Chaturvedi has turned a deeply personal spiritual story into one of 2026’s biggest box-office surprises. In an industry where films routinely arrive with star salaries running into crores, lavish sets and multi-crore marketing campaigns, Hanuman Ansh is a striking anomaly. Made on a shoestring budget reportedly in the region of Rs. 2 crore, the ‘spiritual’ film opened last month to a modest box-office collection. Within weeks, however, audiences began taking a shine to the film with the phenomenal result that its domestic collections had surged past the Rs. 150 crore mark. Whatever the final tally, the fact that a film made for a fraction of the budgets of mainstream Bollywood productions has emerged as a major commercial success has raised eyebrows. The man responsible for this is Vishal Chaturvedi, a doctor-turned-filmmaker, writer and producer whose route to cinema has been anything but conventional. Chaturvedi was born and brought up in Lucknow and completed his MBBS from Gorakhpur in 2006. While posted in Haldwani that year, he visited Kainchi Dham. It was there that he encountered the teachings of Neem Karoli Baba, the spiritual figure whose life and philosophy would eventually become the foundation of his first feature film. For almost two decades, the thought of making a film around Neem Karoli Baba remained with Chaturvedi. His journey towards Hanuman Ansh itself reportedly took nearly 14 years. Along the way, he left medicine and even gave up music before committing himself fully to filmmaking. What might appear in retrospect as an overnight success was therefore anything but overnight. Hanuman Ansh tells the story of Lakshminarayan, who would later become Neem Karoli Baba. Following his mother’s death, the young Lakshman leaves home in search of God. His journey through forests, temples and villages becomes a gradual renunciation of worldly life and a movement towards spirituality. The film also incorporates episodes associated with Neem Karoli Baba, including the famous account of a British train being stopped after he was forced off it. But perhaps the most revealing part of Chaturvedi’s story is not what he put into the film, but what he deliberately kept out while writing it. He removed digital devices from his room and wrote the story entirely by hand. His assistants subsequently photographed the handwritten pages and converted them into digital form. He spent nearly 45 days writing the first scene alone. For Chaturvedi, however, the first scene was the foundation of the entire film. Once he had found it, the rest of the screenplay came together rapidly, taking another 15 to 20 days. Hanuman Ansh was the culmination of a personal conviction that had survived for nearly 20 years. Its success also raises a larger question about the changing economics of Indian cinema. The film is unlikely to signal the death of stars, spectacle or big budgets. Nor does every low-budget film with a strong idea automatically become a blockbuster. But Hanuman Ansh, alongside other recent successes such as Dhurandhar, points towards something increasingly important: content can create its own market when audiences feel they have discovered something worth talking about. The old model depended heavily on pre-release visibility. The new one increasingly depends on post-release conversation. A film need not necessarily dominate advertising if audiences themselves become its marketing department. That is particularly significant for films operating outside the traditional Bollywood template. Hanuman Ansh does not have the conventional ingredients of a commercial blockbuster. Its subject is spiritual, its central character is not a contemporary superstar and its budget was tiny by industry standards. Yet its audience appears to have expanded precisely because it offered something different. Today, audiences are becoming less willing to accept that the size of a film’s budget determines its value. They can reject an expensive production and embrace a modest one if the latter connects emotionally, culturally or spiritually. For Chaturvedi, the irony is striking. A man who walked away from medicine to pursue filmmaking spent years chasing a story that the mainstream industry apparently did not rush to embrace. That makes Hanuman Ansh’s success more than a box-office curiosity. It is a reminder that while budgets and big-name stars may buy scale and draw attention, the belief among audiences that a particular film is telling a solid story and hence must be seen is priceless. Chaturvedi appears to have spent years building his belief around one story. Judging by the box office receipts, the audience, too, seems to have bought into it.

Tukaram Mundhe back to the forefront

Quaid Najmi

May 31

4 min read

Mumbai: Barely a week into his new assignment as Maharashtra’s Commissioner of Food & Drugs Administration (FDA), no-nonsense IAS officer Tukaram H. Mundhe has started cracking the whip.

In an unprecedented surgical strike following the Pune spurious liquor tragedy that claimed 18 lives, Mundhe moved with his characteristic speed. Hours after the disaster, FDA teams swooped on the godown of Rex International, a Bhiwandi-based supplier of industrial methanol allegedly linked to the Pune illicit liquor mafia.

They seized nearly 6 tonnes of the toxic chemical lodged criminal cases with the Narpoli Police Station, ordered arrests and initiated process to cancel the company’s license.

The operation – first for the FDA in a police matter by invoking a little-known law – was typical of Mundhe’s administrative career punctuated with 25 transfers – intervention at jet-speed, ruthless enforcement and uprooting vested interests, unmindful of the likely political repercussions

As the states’ industrial and chemical ecosystem panicked, now the FDA chief has ordered a thorough scrutiny of more than 950 licensed users of industrial methanol across the state and warned of stern action against violators.

“The FDA will adopt zero-tolerance towards anyone found endangering public health. Safe food and medicines are the fundamental rights of every citizen,” Mundhe declared after the operation.

Tough Question

For many in Maharashtra’s bureaucracy, the developments have revived a familiar but uncomfortable question: whether Mundhe is an underdog and one of the state’s most underutilised talents.

After repeated attempts The Perfect Voice could not reach to Mundhe for comments.

In 21 years as an IAS officer, Mundhe has earned a formidable reputation – one who views governance not merely as administration but as system-building. Colleagues describe his working philosophy in four words: “Question, pause, change and improve.”

Wherever posted, Mundhe attempted to identify structural weaknesses, redesigned processes and created institutions capable of delivering long-term public benefits. Though adored by the masses, critics accused him of undue haste or upsetting established arrangements.

Highest Transfers

After 25 transfers, currently the highest for any serving IAS officer in the country, Mundhe has kept quiet and hugged the next posting, treating it as a ‘challenge’. Nevertheless, he is known to have privately rued how the constant shuffles are frustrating and prevent him from making long-lasting impact on any posting.

“With his people-centric approach he wants to strong build systems and institutions that outlast individuals. But this requires stability and continuity, that always eludes him,” said a senior bureaucrat and Mundhe’s former colleague.

Those who have observed him minutely praised his efforts to modernise and improve even non-decrepit sectors like animal husbandry. They recall an occasion when he questioned the babu-dom why Maharashtra - despite its huge agricultural base – had to depend on other states for massive daily supplies of eggs and poultry products.

“He always focused on productivity, self-sufficiency and creating economic ecosystems rather than merely managing departments. His strengths go far beyond routine administration and he is made out for bigger things,” an ex-Deputy CM had once remarked.

For building systems and institutions, such dedicated officers need time, and with a decent tenure, and he has the potential to transform an entire sector, be it health, education, urban development or infrastructure and public service delivery, he explained, recalling Mundhe’s early years in service.

Execution Ability

A former union minister from Maharashtra noted the officer’s unusual combination of administrative discipline, financial prudence and timely execution capability – all of which remain unexploited and squandered in ordinary postings, yet he made a mark in them.

One of the rare and gutsy officers who challenged entrenched interests, he was bogged down by criticism (“he does not listen to anyone”), legal cases, scurrilous charges, wild canards or calculated whispered narratives that put him at loggerheads with political power centres or bureaucratic heirarches – though he was doted by the people.

In his new ‘avatar’ as the state’s food and drugs regulator, he has heralded his arrival with a big bang with the Methanol crackdown, and the next on his radar would be food adulterators, fake medicines, allegations of counterfeit drugs doled out by certain online players plus other public health violations.

A question disturbing many in the administration is whether the state – the CM decides on all IAS level reshuffles – would finally allow one of its high-profile officers settle down with sufficient time and space to create a lasting impression - or take another shortcut vide a transfer.

Hurt, but stoic

A fiercely private person despite his onerous public responsibilities, Tukaram H. Mundhe reportedly rues the frequent transfer orders but keeps going with his family support.

He confided to an official how such transfers - the earliest of which happened when Ashok Chavan was the CM - “don’t allow a chance to build systems or institutions and implement them for long-term public benefits”, as his career nears the two-thirds mark.

Years ago, he had a master-plan to convert Pandharpur into a tourism hub with a project similar to the recently-shelved Nagpur-Goa Shaktipeeth Expressway.

The official claimed it could have been implemented at a fraction of the cost and time, but lacked political sanction. In fact, he purportedly requested a six-month extension to set the project rolling but was spurned.