Actor Dev Patel, who made his directorial debut with Monkey Man, said that he would love to do it again, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Patel wrote, directed, produced, and stars in the Universal action thriller.
The film’s plot revolves around a young guy who embarks on a quest to find the corrupt leaders responsible for his mother’s death, ultimately becoming a rescuer of the poor and powerless people.
During the Los Angeles premiere of the film, Patel shared how he was reluctant about directing a film. He said he became “a reluctant writer and then a sort of reluctant director” on the project after he pitched it to previous collaborator Neill Blomkamp to direct and Blomkamp told the actor he should helm it himself because of his attachment to the material.
“There were some incredible people that pushed me into this director’s seat, and once I was there, I didn’t look back,” Patel continued. “It was by any means necessary I was going to birth this dream so I really love it, and I would love to do it again if I was so lucky.”
Sikandar Kher, who co-stars in the film, praised Patel and shared, “You don’t know that he’s a first-time director.”
“He lets you be. It’s the communication, the way he talks to you. If there’s a note, it doesn’t feel like a note. He lets you fly, lets you spread your wings, and that’s when the magic happens when you can get something that might be special, and he gives you that liberty and that freedom and he loves you, he loves his actors,” Kher added. “He’s going to direct so much more; I hope he does.”
“He was there almost physically getting your appearance right, from the physical detail to the emotional detail. I would completely give credit entirely for my performance to Dev, he just got me there,” added actor Makarand Deshpande as per The Hollywood Reporter.
The film is produced by Jordan Peele, who saw it and stepped in to acquire it via his Monkeypaw Productions (which has a deal with Universal) from Netflix, believing it deserved a theatrical release rather than streaming.
Pointing to Peele as “someone who’s kind of broken out of the mould of what he did with his amazing comedy show and became this kind of filmmaker,” Patel said, “not only did he see that sort of evolution in me as an artist but he understood the strength of using the genre to talk about more interesting, deeper things — societal issues and using it as a sort of Trojan horse. He came in with the might of Universal and kind of took us from being this thing that was brushed under the carpet to putting us back on the mantelpiece, so I owe him a great deal,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
