ABSTRACT
Hanuman, India's first major commercial animated feature film, was released by Percept Pictures in 2005. This Hindi film narrates the life story of Hanuman, the widely revered Hindu monkey-god. Hanuman was a record-breaker on many counts. The 100-minute 2D film played across 200 screens in the country, and was successful commercially, reviving the Indian mythological genre. In a move influenced by the Hollywood business model and rather new to the Indian film industry, Percept launched a range of merchandise during the release of the film such as Baby Hanuman keychains, stickers, toys, mobile games, apparel, stationery, and so on, as part of an aggressive 360-degree branding exercise. Uberoi suggests that the child's sacredness and proximity to divinity in the country is an important factor for understanding Indian baby iconography. The last few decades have witnessed the resurgence of Hindutva - the notion that India should be a Hindu nation, and that India's Hindu culture is its defining characteristic.
