Dev Patel's 'humbling and nourishing' directional debut

Dev Patel says his directional debut 'Monkey Man' was both "humbling and nourishing".

The ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ actor, 33, whose breakout role came in Channel 4’s teen drama ‘Skins’, co-wrote, directed and stars in his new film, and he has admitted it was quite the "undertaking" and is thankful to every single person who helped make it happen.

Speaking to Hey U Guys, he said :"It was a tremendous kind of undertaking. It was very humbling and nourishing at the same time.

"I mean, this is my first rodeo, but when you watch something back that you've directed the sheer amount of gratitude that fills your heart to all of the souls that took part in that vision, everyone that held a pole to move the chair to painted a face to like I look at that and I get overwhelmed by that feeling."

Dev was moved to tears by the rapturous reaction the flick received at its world premiere.

A video shared by Variety on X showed Dev walking out on stage to a standing ovation – before he put his hand over his heart and put his hands to his face, turned away from the audience and appeared to wipe tears from his eyes.

He declared at the showing: “The action genre has been abused by the system. “You know, a quick buck. Mindless (rubbish.)

“I wanted to give it soul. Real trauma. Real pain. You guys deserve that. I wanted to infuse it with a little bit of culture.

“I really wanted to touch on the caste system in India. You have the poor at the bottom, slaving away in the kitchens.

“Then you go up to the land of the kings. Above them is God – a manmade God that’s polluting and corrupting religion.”

‘Monkey Man’ stars Oscar-nominated Dev as a man named Kid who “ekes out a meagre living in an underground fight club where, night after night, wearing a gorilla mask, he is beaten bloody by more popular fighters for cash."

The movie then sees Kid seeking out revenge against a group of men who left him with childhood trauma in a rampage against India’s caste system.

Dev also admitted he was left exhausted after making the movie.

He told People on the red carpet of its premiere last month: “I mean, I’ve been hibernating for a while.

“I don’t really feel fit for public consumption right now. I’ve been in a dark room.

“The paint’s fairly dry on this thing, but it’s huge.”

The film made waves in January when it was revealed it was moving from a Netflix release to theatrical distribution with Universal.

It was widely reported at the time ‘Nope’ filmmaker and producer Jordan Peele, 45, had pushed to release ‘Monkey Man’ in cinemas after he first saw the movie and helped Universal acquire it for distribution.