‘Hanuman Ansh’ To ‘Brahmastra’: Indian Films That Survived Troubled Productions

Written By: Entertainment Desk

Sep 09, 2026 13:37 IST ⓘ

From ‘Hanuman Ansh’ to ‘Brahmastra’: Indian films that survived production chaos.

Every completed film is a small miracle. A hundred moving pieces have to cooperate, the weather has to behave, money must keep flowing and, ideally, nobody should leave midway. The films below apparently looked at that sensible arrangement and chose the obstacle course instead. The latest example is ‘Hanuman Ansh’. Before becoming 2026’s most improbable box-office story, the modest devotional drama lost its original leading man to a medical emergency, watched cast and crew members walk away, struggled simply to get its team to location and finally promoted an assistant director into the title role.

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Its success makes this the perfect moment to revisit Indian films that survived illness, accidents, pandemics, wrecked sets, director changes, censorship battles and delays long enough to acquire their own mythology. Not every ordeal produced a hit; some films reached cinemas only to discover that the audience had moved on. However, in each case, the first achievement was getting a finished film onto a screen at all.

1. Hanuman Ansh

Released on August 7, 2026, writer-director Vishal Chaturvedi’s Hindi devotional drama draws inspiration from the life and spiritual legacy of Neem Karoli Baba. Shobhinaw Satyaa plays the guru, with Vihaan Shedge, Chandan Anand, Purnima Tiwari and Anil Rastogi among the principal cast. The film’s off-screen story sounds like an inspirational drama of its own. The original leading actor became so ill that Vishal Chaturvedi said shooting with him was impossible. Satyaa, who had joined the project as an assistant director, was asked to audition and eventually stepped in front of the camera. Meanwhile, team members quit because they believed the low-budget film would never reach the floor, and even travelling to the Chitrakoot location became a logistical struggle. Satyaa recalled being the “last man standing”; Vishal Chaturvedi also said he waived his fee to help keep the project moving.

Then came the twist no production meeting could have scripted. ‘Hanuman Ansh’ opened to just Rs 10 lakh but expanded dramatically on word of mouth. Through its completed 33rd day, Sacnilk records Rs 143.13 crore net in India and Rs 169.20 crore gross.

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2. Pakeezah

If troubled productions handed out endurance medals, ‘Pakeezah’ would be standing on the podium. Kamal Amrohi’s musical drama, starring Meena Kumari, Raaj Kumar and Ashok Kumar, began filming in 1956, initially in black and white, and finally reached cinemas on February 4, 1972. Its story follows Sahibjaan, a Lucknow courtesan who longs to escape a world that celebrates her art while denying her respectability.

The 15-year passage to release included changes in format and casting, mounting costs, Amrohi and Kumari’s separation, Kumari’s deteriorating health and the deaths of cinematographer Josef Wirsching and composer Ghulam Mohammed. Production stalled for years before Sunil Dutt and Nargis helped persuade an ailing Kumari to return; other cinematographers had to match Wirsching’s visual style, while Naushad completed the background score. An intended 1971 release was then pushed by the India-Pakistan war. The film initially opened slowly but became a long-running success after Kumari’s death on March 31, 1972. An archived Box Office India estimate places its gross at approximately Rs 6 crore.

3. Jagga Jasoos

Anurag Basu’s ‘Jagga Jasoos’ arrived on July 14, 2017, after spending so long in production that its young detective could almost have investigated his own release date. Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Saswata Chatterjee and Saurabh Shukla led the musical adventure about a stammering schoolboy who sings his sentences and travels with journalist Shruti in search of his missing father.

The ambitious film took roughly four years, around 150 shooting days and several widely separated schedules. Its release shifted repeatedly as Ranbir and Katrina completed other projects, while the unusual song-driven format demanded elaborate location work and post-production. Ranbir acknowledged that he, Anurag Basu and Katrina discussed shelving it during the difficult stretches. Importantly, he also denied reports of wholesale reshoots, saying the real problem was the long gap between schedules. It did finally reach theatres, although the commercial ending was not especially musical: Bollywood Hungama recorded Rs 54.16 crore net in India and Rs 91.47 crore worldwide, classifying it as a flop.

4. Padmaavat

Most period spectacles stage their sieges in front of the camera. ‘Padmaavat’ endured one outside it. Directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali and starring Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor and Ranveer Singh, the epic – adapted from Malik Muhammad Jayasi’s poem – centres on Rani Padmavati, Maharawal Ratan Singh and Sultan Alauddin Khilji. It eventually released on January 25, 2018, but only after a journey in which the film itself seemed permanently under attack.

SLB was assaulted and equipment was smashed during the Jaipur schedule in January 2017. A Kolhapur set was later vandalised and set on fire, while protests, threats and calls for bans intensified over allegations about the queen’s depiction – claims the makers rejected. The planned December 1, 2017 release was postponed; the CBFC required modifications, disclaimers and a change from Padmavati to Padmaavat. Several states announced bans before the Supreme Court stayed them. The turbulence cost the film time, access to some important markets and any hope of an ordinary promotional campaign. Yet the final numbers were emphatic: Bollywood Hungama recorded Rs 302.15 crore net in India and Rs 571.98 crore worldwide.

5. Tumbbad

The rain in ‘Tumbbad’ is so atmospheric that it feels like another character. That effect came with a punishing condition: the crew could shoot those passages only during the monsoon. Directed by Rahi Anil Barve, with Adesh Prasad credited as co-director, the folklore-horror film starred Sohum Shah, Jyoti Malshe, Anita Date and Mohammad Samad. Released on October 12, 2018, it follows the increasingly consumed Vinayak Rao as he repeatedly enters a forbidden chamber to steal gold from the monstrous Hastar.

The film took six years and four monsoons to finish. Sohum Shah has described repeated trial and error while designing Hastar: prosthetic versions attempted in 2012-13 and again in 2015 failed to deliver, forcing the team to abandon that approach and create the creature with visual effects. The screenplay kept evolving, vast quantities of material were shot and much of it never reached the final cut. At first, the ordeal produced only a modest theatrical result, but the film’s cult following later generated a hugely successful 2024 re-release. Sacnilk now lists its combined lifetime performance at Rs 44.05 crore net in India and Rs 52.25 crore worldwide.

6. Manikarnika: The Queen Of Jhansi

The battle for Jhansi was the film; the battle over who shaped the film became the publicity campaign nobody had ordered. ‘Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi’, starring Kangana Ranaut as Rani Lakshmibai alongside Jisshu Sengupta, Ankita Lokhande, Atul Kulkarni and Danny Denzongpa, released on January 25, 2019. It dramatised the queen’s transformation from Manikarnika into one of the most prominent leaders of the 1857 uprising.

Krish Jagarlamudi began as director, but Kangana later took over substantial directing duties after disagreements and scheduling complications. Sonu Sood exited, portions had to be reworked, and the two filmmakers subsequently gave sharply different public accounts of what was changed and why. The fairest statement is also the one printed on the film: Krish and Kangana share the directing credit. The production therefore reached cinemas after a leadership change, a major cast departure, new shooting and a remarkably public argument about authorship. Commercially, it landed in the middle rather than at either extreme. Bollywood Hungama recorded Rs 92.19 crore net in India and Rs 132.95 crore worldwide.

7. Brahmastra: Part One - Shiva

For years, ‘Brahmastra' appeared less like a forthcoming movie and more like an astronomical event people hoped to witness within their lifetime. Ayan Mukerji’s fantasy adventure, starring Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Amitabh Bachchan, Mouni Roy and Nagarjuna Akkineni, was announced in 2014 and released on September 9, 2022. It follows DJ Shiva, who discovers his connection to fire and becomes involved in the struggle to protect the powerful Brahmastra from Junoon.

Ayan Mukerji spent years developing the mythology and visual language before filming began in 2018. After the first major schedule – built around the climax – the director said the visual-effects budget effectively tripled because the team was attempting processes new to Indian filmmaking. He and producer Karan Johar even flew to London amid uncertainty over raising enough money to finish. Shifting release targets followed, then the pandemic halted shooting and extended an already enormous post-production job. Eight years after its announcement, the film finally lit up screens. Sacnilk recorded a final Rs 267.20 crore net in India and Rs 431 crore worldwide.

8. Aadujeevitham - The Goat Life

Prithviraj Sukumaran was unmarried and had not yet become a father, director or producer when he agreed to ‘Aadujeevitham’. By the time it released on March 28, 2024, roughly 16 years had passed. Blessy’s Malayalam survival drama – also featuring K R Gokul, Amala Paul and Jimmy Jean-Louis – adapts Benyamin’s novel about Najeeb, a migrant labourer forced into a brutal, isolated existence as a goatherd in the Saudi desert.

This was a 16-year creative journey, not 16 continuous years of filming. Blessy and Prithviraj spent about a decade trying to mount a project whose scale exceeded the commercial infrastructure then available to Malayalam cinema; shooting finally began in 2018. The team searched across countries for the right desert, dealt with extreme heat and unpredictable goats, and built production around Prithviraj’s drastic physical transformation. Then Covid-19 closed borders, halted the schedule and left the crew stranded in Jordan in circumstances uncomfortably close to the isolation depicted in the film. The long wait did find an audience: Sacnilk recorded Rs 85.26 crore net in India and Rs 157.62 crore worldwide.

9. Maidaan

Football grounds are rebuilt between seasons; ‘Maidaan’ nearly rebuilt one between every production crisis. Amit Ravindernath Sharma’s sports biographical drama starred Ajay Devgn as Syed Abdul Rahim, with Priyamani, Gajraj Rao and Rudranil Ghosh, and revisited the celebrated years of the Indian football team under Rahim. Paid previews began on April 10, 2024, before its wider Eid rollout.

The film was delayed for more than five years, with its enormous football set in Mumbai standing for roughly three and a half of them. During the Covid lockdown, the makers dismantled the set; after rebuilding it, Cyclone Tauktae destroyed an estimated 70-80 per cent, forcing construction for a third time. International players and technicians would arrive, shoot for a short window and then face another shutdown – producer Boney Kapoor said this happened three times. Release dates came and went as costs mounted and post-production continued. The box office was less triumphant than the story on screen: Sacnilk listed Rs 53.03 crore net in India and Rs 71.15 crore worldwide.

10. Indian 2

When ‘Indian 2’ was announced, the excitement centred on Kamal Haasan and director S Shankar reviving vigilante Senapathy more than two decades after Indian. Nobody anticipated that the sequel itself would require a five-year rescue mission. Released on July 12, 2024, the film starred Haasan, Siddharth, Rakul Preet Singh, S J Suryah and Bobby Simha, and brought the ageing freedom fighter back into a campaign against corruption led by disillusioned young Indians.

Production began in 2019 and encountered delays early, but its darkest moment came on February 19, 2020, when a crane crashed onto the set at EVP Film City near Chennai, killing three crew members and injuring several others. The tragedy halted work; the pandemic soon created another shutdown, and further production complications prolonged the hiatus before filming eventually resumed. This is one case where “chaos” must not become breezy shorthand – the human cost was real, and both Shankar and Kamal Haasan publicly expressed grief and raised questions about set safety. The eventual film did not justify its long wait commercially: Sacnilk recorded Rs 81.39 crore net in India and Rs 148.90 crore worldwide.

11. Emergency

Kangana Ranaut’s ‘Emergency’ spent almost as much time escaping release dates as its politicians spent escaping crises. Written and directed by Kangana, who also played former prime minister Indira Gandhi, the Hindi political drama featured Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Mahima Chaudhry, Milind Soman and the late Satish Kaushik. It focuses primarily on the 21-month Emergency imposed in India from 1975 to 1977 and finally opened on January 17, 2025.

“Finally” is doing heavy work there. The film moved from a planned November 2023 release to June 2024 and then September 6, 2024. That date collapsed when certification did not arrive in time amid objections from Sikh organisations over the community’s portrayal. The dispute entered court proceedings, while the CBFC process resulted in required changes before the certificate was issued in October 2024. Only then could the January date be fixed. The protracted controversy did not translate into major theatrical business: Sacnilk recorded Rs 18.40 crore net in India and Rs 23.81 crore worldwide.

12. Hari Hara Veera Mallu: Part 1 – Sword vs Spirit

Pawan Kalyan’s first full-scale historical epic took so long that its production acquired two directors, repeated release calendars and a political subplot of its own. ‘Hari Hara Veera Mallu: Part 1 – Sword vs Spirit’ opened on July 24, 2025, starring Kalyan, Bobby Deol, Nidhhi Agerwal and Sathyaraj. Set in the Mughal era, it follows outlaw Veera Mallu on a high-stakes mission that eventually puts him in conflict with imperial power.

The project spent more than five years navigating repeated stoppages. Covid-19 disrupted filming, while Kalyan’s expanding political commitments limited his availability. Original director Krish Jagarlamudi stepped away; producer A M Rathnam’s son A M Jyothi Krishna took charge of completing the film, and both ultimately received directing credit. The release was postponed three times in 2025 alone, while the climactic action stretch reportedly required a 57-day shoot. Kalyan publicly addressed speculation that he had abandoned the production, crediting Rathnam and Jyothi Krishna with pushing it over the finish line. The rescue did not produce a profitable ending: Sacnilk recorded Rs 87.25 crore net in India and Rs 116.88 crore worldwide, against its listed Rs 300 crore budget.