There was a time when I was ashamed of the Indian part of my heritage: Dev Patel

Monkey Man starring Dev Patel has been receiving positive reviews. Hollywood actor Dev Patel who has also directed the film talked about how he was ashamed of his Indian heritage when he was in school. “There was a time when I was ashamed of the Indian part of my heritage. When you're in school in Greater London, it's not the coolest. I'm trying what I can to not show that part, going into films like Slumdog Millionaire and doing all these kinds of movies. I realised actually that with the first movie I'm going to direct, I'm not going to double down, I'm going to triple down on culture. I grew up watching Bollywood and Bruce Lee and Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jim Carrey and Jackie Chan. It's all in there in Monkey Man. It's the cocktail that makes me,” Dev said in an episode of the Kelly Clarkson Show. 

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

 In an interview with BBC, Dev Patel talked about the motivation for Monkey Man and what he hoped to achieve for the Indian-American community through the film. “There was nothing in between that represented my existence, my identity, my duality of culture. I just wanted to infuse all of the things that I ran away from as a child. It’s got a real political, social resonance. It’s a revenge film about faith and how faith can be the most elegant weapon. I wanted to create our own stories and our own fresh world. I wanted to broaden our horizons so we’re not fighting over the same role. When I started writing this, the only roles I was getting offered were to be the comedy sidekick or the guy that hacks the mainframe for the big, cool guy,” Dev said.