Why Hanuman Ansh Missed Deadline For India’s Oscar Entry

Hanuman Ansh, which is a box office hit, could not be submitted as India’s official entry for the Best International Feature Film category. The Oscar race has moved on without the film this year despite ₹200 crore box office success. Producer Namrata Singh revealed why the devotional film on Neem Karoli Baba missed the Oscar race.

Why Hanuman Ansh missed Oscar deadline

Singh told Bollywood Hungama that the team missed the deadline, saying that they only realised the submission window had closed after several calls about it. The makers are now focused on taking the film to audiences in other languages and on accessibility work.

She said the team is small and stretched across too many jobs at the same time. That workload pushed the Oscar process out of focus.

“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,” Singh said.

The makers are handling multiple demands around the film. They are doing them one by one instead of trying to finish everything together.

Dubbing and accessibility

“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,” Singh said.

Telugu dubbing is complete and work on the rest of the languages will follow later. Singh also pointed to accessibility work as a parallel priority, with the team trying to ensure that people of different abilities can watch the film.

At the same time, the film’s artists and director are travelling for promotions. Singh said that has left the office with barely any staff while the tour continues.

Telugu release plans

Hanuman Ansh hits Telugu theatres on September 18. Filmmaker Trivikram Srinivas has backed the Telugu version.

Written and directed by Vishal Chaturvedi, the film stars Shobhinaw Satyaa, Chandan Anand, Anil Rastogi, Sugandha Malhotra, Bhagvandas Patel, Neha Paranjpe, Udaysinh Rajput, Purnima Tiwari and Gautam Tripathi.