India, Sept. 2 -- A fter dropping to just 25 screens in its second week, Hanuman Ansh, based on Neem Karoli Baba, has staged an unlikely box-office turnaround. The film, which opened in 250 theatres, is now running on around 1,200 screens in its fourth week and has reportedly earned Rs.45 crore in India against an investment of Rs.1.7 crore. Director Dr Vishal Chaturvedi credits the audience for the surge. "We hardly did any promotion and PR as we did not have any budget, but the audience played the role of PR with word-of-mouth and posting on social media. The audience has driven the film on their shoulders." The debutant filmmaker says the film lost most of its shows when Batwara 1947 and Awarapan 2 released on August 14: "Our shows were reduced to just 25 screens, but they kept running well. The audience wanted to watch, but there were no shows, so people travelled 200-250 kms and posted on SM." The team then hit the road, visiting Rajkot, Surat, Ahmedabad and smaller towns to meet audiences, local media and exhibitors: "We did not have funds so we amplified it on social media and it was boosted by content creators and users with very emotional reels. It organically became viral and shows increased," says the director, who left medical practice in 2011 to pursue films, working with Anubhav Sinha and assisting on projects including Hurdang (2022) and Dedh Bigha Zameen (2024)....