The trailer for Hunkkaar: The Roar opens with Aneet Padda’s character trying to file a sexual assault complaint against a powerful godman. A police officer tells her that they will speak to him before registering her complaint. She refuses to leave until the complaint is filed.
Women know this story. A powerful man is accused, but the woman’s life, behaviour, and motives are examined before the system so much as looks at him. Godmen have more than money or political influence protecting them. They have faith. People do not simply admire them; they are revered as deities in their own right.
Hunkkaar is the latest in a series of films and shows asking Indian audiences to accept that a godman can also be a sexual predator. The wave began with Aashram in 2020. Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai followed in 2023, and Maharaj in 2024.
India’s #MeToo movement changed the list of men women could accuse in public. The boss everyone respected could be a predator. So could the famous actor, celebrated director, powerful editor, or senior politician. Reputation was no longer accepted as an alibi quite as easily as before.
The baba was funny before he became frightening
Hindi cinema has questioned babas before. The godmen in OMG: Oh My God! (2012), PK (2014), and Singham Returns (2014) were frauds, businessmen, or political fixers. The fake baba could also be comic relief. The costume gave him away, as did the mannerisms, fake miracles, and greed.
The newer godman is frightening for a different reason. His holiness is what gives him access to women and girls. It teaches them to obey him and makes everyone else reluctant to question him. So when a woman speaks, her accusation threatens the faith of everyone who worships him.
That is a particularly difficult conversation in India. The guru, sadhu, or saint has always occupied a serious place in our imagination. In mythological stories, princes leave palaces to learn in ashrams. The guru stands outside worldly greed and palace intrigue. He teaches, protects, and guides.
This is why the sight of Padda’s character sitting at the police station matters. She has to persuade people that the man they consider morally superior is capable of sexual violence. Before she can fight for justice, she has to make the crime conceivable.
Audiences today appear willing to imagine it.
The third season of Aashram, starring Bobby Deol as the predatory Baba Nirala, drew an estimated 34.3 million viewers in 2022. It was the second-most-watched Hindi streaming show that year.
Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai, which revolved around a lawyer prosecuting a godman accused of raping a minor, recorded the highest watch-time among films on ZEE5. Maharaj, based on the 1862 Maharaj Libel Case, reached an estimated 12.1 million viewers in India and was among the most-watched Hindi streaming films in 2024.
Numbers cannot tell us why every person watched. But three successful titles, followed by a new show, signal that this is no longer an accusation filmmakers think audiences will reject outright.
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Faith is not the problem
In an environment where movies and shows critical of godmen are being widely watched, Hanuman Ansh has become the biggest sleeper hit of 2026. The film reveres Neem Karoli Baba and presents the saint as a figure of love, service, and spiritual guidance. Made on a budget of around Rs 2 crore, it has earned nearly Rs 73 crore in India.
Indians have not stopped believing in saints. Cinema has not replaced the compassionate guru with the criminal baba. Both figures now exist together.
Audiences can feel devotion toward Neem Karoli Baba in one film and believe a teenage girl accusing a godman in another. Faith remains sacred, but the men who claim its authority are now less than almighty.
Views are personal.
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)