His brief visits to India to shoot for his international movies helped British actor of Indian descent Dev Patel connect to the country as well as revisit his cultural roots.
“It is a wonderful way to get in touch with your culture and with your roots. I’m constantly astounded whenever I go to India. I feel so inspired by the people I interact with and with the things that I see,” said Patel, who sprang to global stardom with the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire.
“I really hope I can continue to do that all my life,” said the actor, who has Gujarati roots.
Just a cursory glance over Patel’s work — be it as a Mumbai slum dweller in Slumdog Millionaire, Neal Sampat of TV series The Newsroom or a manager of a hotel in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel — shows his skill as an actor.
Another movie that brought Patel in India is The Man Who Knew Infinity, a biopic about Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan. The 24-year-old says entering the world of complex mathematics was not easy for him.
“I spent a lot of time in southern India and did a lot of rehearsal with the director [Matthew Brown]. A mathematician introduced us to the world of complex mathematics [on the set], and I’d be lying if I said I learned it. It is so complex, that it went over my head.”
Now, Patel is gearing up for the release of his movie Chappie, out in the UAE on Thursday.
In Chappie, Patel teamed up with Hugh Jackman and Sigourney Weaver. He also shared screen space with Hollywood legends such as Richard Gere and Judi Dench in The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which also brought him to shoot in India.
Asked about his favourite Bollywood stars, Patel was quick to name his top pics.
“There are a couple. I would start with Shah Rukh Khan. He is my absolute favourite. And then... I have already worked with but I would die to work with him again — Irrfan Khan, and Nawazuddin, these are my top favourites,” the actor said.
The silver screen has captured Patel’s transformation from a lanky teenager to a young man with a scruffy and rugged look, which is garnering a lot of attention. The actor says his the new look is for a movie.
Patel also mentioned that when he started his career in showbiz with British TV show Skins, he was not sure what he was getting into. Now after seven years in the industry and with a number of critically acclaimed films to his credit, Patel is in no mood to let success get to his head.
