The Oscar race has moved on without Hanuman Ansh this year. Producer Namrata Singh revealed that the film could not be submitted for consideration as India’s official entry for the Best International Feature Film category. The producer said the team missed the submission deadline.
Speaking to Bollywood Hungama, Namrata explained that the team only realised that the submission window had closed after receiving several calls about it. She said, “We missed the Oscar submission deadline [for consideration as India’s official entry for Best International Feature Film] yesterday (September 7), as it was the last day. We got calls from a thousand people ki aap ne film submit nahin ki. But we didn’t know about it. We are busy with too many things. Also, we are a really small team.”
According to Namrata Singh, the makers are currently handling several things at the same time, including taking Hanuman Ansh to audiences in other languages. Instead of trying to take up everything together, the team is completing each task one by one.
She said, “First, we have done dubbing for Telugu and then work on the rest of the languages. We are also working on accessibility so that people of different abilities can see the film. The artists and director are on tour. There’s hardly anyone in the office.”
The film’s Telugu version is now set to arrive in cinemas on September 18. Filmmaker Trivikram Srinivas is associated with the Telugu version, which was announced on September 11, coinciding with the Mahasamadhi Day of Neem Karoli Baba.
For now, Telugu is the only language in which the film has been dubbed, with the makers planning to work on other versions later.
Written and directed by Vishal Chaturvedi, Hanuman Ansh hit theatres on August 7. Shobhinaw Satyaa plays Neem Karoli Baba, while Chandan K Anand, Nikhil Dubey, Anil Rastogi, Sugandha Malhotra and Bhagvandas Patel are also part of the cast.
The film tells the story of Lakshmi Narayan, a young boy in pre-Independence India who leaves home following his mother’s death in search of God. His journey across Northern India eventually leads to his transformation into Neem Karoli Baba.
Hanuman Ansh has crossed the Rs 200 crore mark at the domestic box office, as per industry tracker Sacnilk.