Dev Patel Reveals He Suffered Several Injuries While Filming Monkey Man

With roles in films like Slumdog Millionaire and The Green Knight, Dev Patel is a well-known face in the film industry. The actor is starting a new chapter in his career with his debut directorial feature film Monkey Man. It promises to be an exciting, crazy adventure, where Dev plays the starring part as well and does a lot of ass-kicking. Kicking all of that ass, it turns out, comes at a cost, as he suffered through several injuries while filming the movie. 

Dev Patel got injured at Monkey Man’s set

Dev presented Monkey Man at SXSW in Austin, Texas and got a positive response from the audience in addition to a standing ovation for the movie. The actor shared anecdotes about the film shooting at a Q&A session that took place after the viewing. He disclosed in the conversation that he had multiple fractures while filming Monkey Man.

As per Metro UK, Dev said, "I broke my foot two weeks before [the] shoot, my toes and stuff. That was painful. Then tore my shoulder. And then in the middle of that bathroom fight, day two, I broke my hand. That was like, 'Okay, here we go again. Production is going to go down.' I can't wear a cast on this movie. We don't have the budget to paint this out [digitally].” 

According to Dev, the film had numerous obstacles to overcome before Universal Pictures decided to acquire it from Netflix and release it in theaters. There were limited funds, limited resources, and pandemic protocols to consider. The train was simply too fast for them to halt, or else everything might have collapsed. Thus, Dev took the responsible course of action and had a doctor patch up his hand. To keep the production headed in the right direction, he simply disregarded the doctor's post-operative advice of not putting any pressure on his hand and went straight back to filming. 

What more do we know about Monkey Man

Inspired by the legend of Lord Hanuman, Monkey Man is set in Mumbai and features the Lion star as a man on a quest for vengeance against the corrupt leaders who murdered his mother and continue to systemically victimise the poor and powerless. The actor plays Kid, an anonymous young man who seeks out a meager living in an underground fight club where, night after night, wearing a gorilla mask, he is beaten bloody by more popular fighters for cash.