Dev Patel recollects struggle to shoot ‘Monkey Man’ as India was faced with pandemic

Monkey Man starring Dev Patel and Shobha Dhulipala as the lead actors will release in theatres on April 5th. Dev Patel has also jointly produced the film along with directing it. 

The story about a person’s revenge against corrupt leaders who killed his mother is set in India, however Dev faced a major roadblock as the film’s shooting coincided with the pandemic that entailed travel restrictions. “We were meant to shoot in India then COVID hit. All of the locations we prepped for months so we had to adapt at the last minute. 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,” Dev said. 

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The restriction also resulted in Dev having to opt for artists not belonging to India. “I ended up having to put every tailor, lighting guy, accountant etc. in front of the camera. We literally shot stuff on my mobile phone, go pros — when a crane broke, we ended (up) creating this camera rig from rope, which I termed the ‘pendulum cam,’ which swings over a large crowd of people then detaches and the operators run through the crowd whilst it was rolling,’ Dev stated. 

Monkey Man has taken inspiration from Lord Hanuman.