Who is Maharaj-ji in Hanuman Ansh? Meet the retired army man Colonel Bakshi

Few people would guess that the man playing Maharaj-ji in one of 2026's biggest surprise hits spent decades in military intelligence. Retired Colonel Munishwar Nath Hunny Bakshi, once the commanding officer of the Indian Army's Technical Support Division (TSD), appears as the older Neem Karoli Baba in Hanuman Ansh.

Retired Army Colonel Munishwar Bakshi stars in Hanuman Ansh

Bakshi, 61, was commissioned into the Military Intelligence Corps in December 1988, following training at the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun. His service includes missions in Jammu & Kashmir and the Northeast, and he got the Vishisht Seva Medal. Prior to taking over the TSD, he led a military intelligence unit in Kolkata from 2007 to 2010.

The TSD was established in 2010 by then-Army Chief General V.K. Singh to conduct covert intelligence operations beyond conventional frontiers. It has since split, and its later years were marred by investigations and court-martial proceedings involving Bakshi, which explains why his appearance on TV has piqued so much interest.

The route into cinema was not a casting call. According to reports, Bakshi approached director Vishal Chaturvedi with a script of his own. Vishal felt he bore a resemblance to Neem Karoli Baba and offered him the part instead.

The role is smaller than the headlines suggest. Bakshi appears briefly in the film's framing sequence as the elder Baba, while Shobhinaw Satyaa plays the younger Maharaj-ji for most of the running time. Satyaa's own path was unusual. He was working as a second assistant director when the original lead fell ill, and Vishal reportedly auditioned him for five hours before casting him.

Released on 7 August 2026, Hanuman Ansh is a devotional drama based on real incidents from the life of Neem Karoli Baba, the Hanuman devotee associated with Kainchi Dham. He died in Vrindavan in 1973, and his teachings of love, compassion and selfless service later reached the West through followers such as Ram Dass. His legacy has also been linked, in popular retellings, to Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg.

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