Kunal Kemmu has a different label for the 2026 hit Hanuman Ansh. As the Vishal Chaturvedi-directed film crossed ₹423.26 crore in global gross, Kemmu argued that “pan-India” now undersells it. “It has become a pan-international film. Everybody in the world is watching that film,” he told India Today Digital while promoting his new release Vibe.
A trade term, not a creative formula
Kemmu’s point is that the pan-India tag is a box office description, not an instruction manual for storytelling. The label is used when a film collects from enough territories to look like a national event. But he does not believe there is a fixed creative formula behind it. “The only way they say pan-India is when they get everything that is defined about Bollywood by the business that it does at the box office,” he said.
Once a story travels further, the older label becomes too small. For Hanuman Ansh, Kemmu prefers the wider frame: a content-led film that found audiences globally without being built around a conventional formula.
What the numbers show
Hanuman Ansh continues to hold in its eighth week. According to Sacnilk, it collected ₹2.90 crore India nett on Thursday, October 1, across 4,345 shows at 19 per cent occupancy. Its week eight collection was ₹29.20 crore, and the global total now stands at ₹423.26 crore gross.
- Week 8 India collection: ₹29.20 crore
- October 1 India nett: ₹2.90 crore from 4,345 shows
- Global gross total: ₹423.26 crore
For Kemmu, the number is less interesting than what it says about audience appetite. Films that succeed on content, without following “the so-called norms or the idea that there’s a formula,” give artists reason to keep taking risks.
Why that gives artists hope
Kemmu called the success of standalone films “endearing, heartwarming and confidence-inspiring.” An artist’s journey, he added, is “filled with a lot of heartbreak at times, a lot of surprises, a lot of uphill battles.” That is why he frames the result less as a market verdict and more as permission to continue.
He was careful not to dismiss the conventional route. The industry still needs different kinds of stories and artists, he said, and audiences will receive them in different ways.
Vibe’s quieter test
Kemmu’s own Vibe is a smaller illustration. The action-comedy, his second directorial after Madgaon Express, stars him with Preity Zinta, Sparsh Shrivastava and debutant Vanshika Dhir. It released on September 18 and has collected ₹20.05 crore worldwide gross so far, including ₹18 crore from India and ₹2.05 crore overseas. Its India nett stands at ₹15.15 crore across 22,276 shows.
The comparison is not about scale. It is about whether audiences will make room for stories that do not follow a prescribed formula. Hanuman Ansh suggests they will; Vibe is still finding its own answer.
Source: India Today
Comments