Two very different box-office stories collided over the Gandhi Jayanti weekend. Ajay Devgn’s franchise sequel Drishyam 3: The Conclusion opened huge. Hanuman Ansh, a reported ₹2-crore spiritual film, gave up seats but not audience interest.
Drishyam 3 posts a ₹176.50-crore opening
Drishyam 3 began with ₹62 crore on 2 October, dipped to ₹53.50 crore on day two, and recovered to ₹61 crore on day three. That is ₹176.50 crore net in India over the first weekend. The release kept adding capacity: 15,759 shows on day one, 16,868 on day two and 17,323 on day three. Mint reports the opening as one of the biggest of 2026. The sequel benefits from the franchise’s built-in audience and a lead pairing of Ajay Devgn and Tabu.
Hanuman Ansh loses shows, keeps demand
Hanuman Ansh, based on the life of Neem Karoli Baba and starring Shobhinaw Satyaa, is reported to have cost around ₹2 crore. Its week eight had reached ₹29.20 crore by 1 October, when the film collected ₹2.90 crore from 4,345 shows at 19% occupancy. Once Drishyam 3 arrived, the screen count collapsed.
- 1 October: ₹2.90 crore from 4,345 shows, 19% occupancy
- 2 October: ₹2.25 crore from 1,166 shows, 54% occupancy
- 3 October: ₹2.10 crore from 1,339 shows, 39% occupancy
- 4 October: ₹3 crore from 1,399 shows, 57% occupancy
That pattern matters. The smaller film’s revenue dropped sharply, but its occupancy more than doubled when Drishyam 3 opened. It was a supply squeeze — fewer screens — not a demand collapse.
Read the clash as a screen-allocation case
A direct comparison between the two titles is misleading: one is a big-budget franchise sequel with major stars, the other a low-budget devotional drama with lesser-known talent. The more practical comparison is what happened to Hanuman Ansh’s show count.
It lost 3,179 shows in a single day to Drishyam 3’s expansion. For media planners and distributors, that is the operating metric: exhibitors reallocated capacity to the title with bigger opening-day economics.
Why the occupancy jump matters
For a small film, 54% occupancy on a day when it loses most of its shows is a meaningful signal. It suggests the audience still turns up when the film is available, and that the title could have held better with even moderate screen retention. Exhibitors often reward occupancy with shows; Hanuman Ansh’s Sunday bounce is a reason to add some back.
Monday supplies the next signal
Hanuman Ansh has already entered its ninth week, and its Sunday recovery to ₹3 crore from 1,399 shows suggests it can still convert when seats are available. Drishyam 3’s opening has the Gandhi Jayanti extended-weekend benefit, so Monday’s hold is the better test of its staying power. For Hanuman Ansh, the test is whether exhibitors return some shows; for Drishyam 3, whether the numbers hold without the holiday.
Source: Mint
