"He taught me about the importance of stillness.”
Dev Patel revealed that one Bollywood star’s work served as inspiration for his upcoming film Monkey Man.
Ahead of its global release on April 5, 2024, Dev answered some questions about the film during an Ask Me Anything session.
When one fan asked if any Bollywood films inspired Monkey Man, Dev revealed:
“Anything Shah Rukh Khan does.”
He went on to detail his experience of working with Hollywood and Bollywood legends.
“Watching them and acting opposite of them shaped me hugely.
“Especially Irrfan [Khan] in Slumdog [Millionaire]. He taught me about the importance of stillness.”
Monkey Man stars Dev Patel as Kid, a man who seeks revenge against a group of corrupt leaders who murdered his mother.
Dev, who has also directed the film, admitted that production was the “most demanding thing” he had ever done in his life, stating that it was an “absolute catastrophe” almost every day.
He revealed: “I begged our financier not to shut us down a few weeks before principal photography.
“We were meant to shoot in India then Covid hit.
“I lost my initial production designer and DOP and the film was basically dead then we pivoted and went to a tiny island in Indonesia where we could create a bubble in an empty hotel for the whole crew of nearly 500 people.
“It was a gruelling nine months of absolute joy and utter chaos.”
“All of the locations we prepped for months at – we lost day of – so we had to adapt last minute – the borders closed also I couldn’t bring in lots of supporting characters so I ended up having to put every tailor, lighting guy, accountant etc in front of the camera.”
He said most of their equipment broke and because they could not fly in new ones, they “shot stuff on my mobile phone”.
Dev continued: “Speaking of tables we only had three or four breakaway tables so once I would perform a huge bulk of stunts I would scream cut and then immediately all of us would get on our hands and knees looking for all of the broken pieces of wood to glue the tables back together for the next shot.
“In a very long nutshell, every obstacle provided us with a new opportunity to innovate. BOOM!”
The idea of Monkey Man had been “rattling around” in Dev’s head for over 10 years.
Highlighting his influences, Dev recalled:
“Since when my grandfather talked to me about Hanuman and the story about Ramayana.
“The first image I had was a young man wearing a cheap gorilla mask in an underground wrestling ring.”
Detailing the plot, he added:
“After years of suppressed rage, Kid discovers a way to infiltrate the enclave of the city’s sinister elite.
“As his childhood trauma boils over, his mysteriously scarred hands unleash an explosive campaign of retribution to settle the score with the men who took everything from him.”
Watch the Monkey Man Trailer
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