Explained - How Mahavatar Narasimha made at a modest budget of Rs 40cr won audiences and went on to collect a whopping Rs 249 cr

Mahavatar Narsimha

At face value, Mahavatar Narasimha looks like a bold bet, an animated feature aiming for a mainstream, pan-India audience. In practice, it worked because it fused devotional storytelling with clear, contemporary craft choices, world-building, music, and scale, without losing emotional clarity.

Film's director Ashwin Kumar has been consistent about the film’s guiding principle: technology serves the story, not the other way around.

In an earlier exclusive interview with Moneycontrol, Ashwin underlined the limits of tech hype: "The one place I really feel AI lacks is a soul… it cannot tell a story; it does not know if it's a good story, a bad story, or a story that is touching you."

That ethos is visible throughout the film, the sets feel designed to elevate bhakti and moral conflict rather than to simply dazzle.

In the review of Mahavatar Narasimha, Moneycontrol called it a “moving mythological story” that children shouldn’t miss.

The movie also widened the theatre-going base beyond core devotees and animation enthusiasts to families and casual viewers. Many experts think that the surprise element also worked in the film's favour, along with the good word of mouth.

Director Ashwin Kumar told Moneycontrol he anticipated noise but was still taken aback by the scale of the response: “I knew it was going to make a stir but this is surreal.”

Surprise wasn’t accidental

The movie's promotions leaned into cultural resonance, like hosting a rare success celebration at the ISKCON  temple in Juhu, Mumbai. Plus it also reinforced word-of-mouth among communities where legitimacy matters more than slick trailers.

Then there’s strategic backing and universe thinking. Producer Shilpa Dhawan’s revelation, Hombale backing the entire Mahavatar universe, signalled confidence to audiences and exhibitors alike, turning a single title into a promise of continuity.

By late August, the film inched towards Rs 300 crore worldwide, cementing it as the benchmark for Indian animation.

Finally, clarity of authorship mattered. When a filmmaker publicly says tech is a tool and soul is the differentiator, it sets a north star for collaborators and marketing alike.

As Ashwin put it, AI can 'mimic the skills' but not the heart; Mahavatar Narasimha beats the heart and wins.

It worked because it respected the myth, prioritised feeling over fireworks, marketed with cultural intelligence, and projected a future (the Mahavatar universe) that audiences wanted to invest in.

Mahavatar Narasimha is a 2025 animated mythological epic directed by Ashwin Kumar, produced by Kleem Productions and presented by Hombale Films.

Released on 25 July 2025 in multiple Indian languages and in 3D, it represents a strong push to scale up Indian animated cinema.