Dev Patel said he spent over ten years developing and writing Monkey Man, his feature directorial debut. The idea began with a personal ambition: to lead an action film at a time when he felt the industry did not see actors like him in that role. The path from that idea to the film’s April 5, 2024 theatrical release ran through a pandemic shutdown, an improvised shoot in Indonesia, injuries and a change in distributor.
Why Patel wanted to make this film
In an April 3, 2024 interview with The AU Review, Patel described the idea and writing as something that had been “knocking about” for over ten years. He tied the project to the roles available to him early in his career: “It’s been over ten years since I first started with the idea, and started writing it. And at that point in my career, more so than now, I wasn’t getting roles like this — and I don’t think the industry saw people like myself like that.”
Making the film let Patel pursue an action-leading role while bringing together influences he cared about: action cinema, Korean revenge films and the Bollywood movies he encountered through his family. Stories of Hanuman, which his grandfather told him, also informed the project. Patel connected Hanuman’s iconography with familiar superheroes, but used the story to explore faith, power and oppression.
What story did Patel set out to tell?
Monkey Man follows Kid, a masked underground fighter seeking revenge for his mother’s death. Patel described it as a revenge film about faith. The Hanuman influence gave him a way to consider who is treated as a “demon” in society, and how power shapes that judgment. Those concerns sit alongside the film’s action rather than replacing its revenge-story engine.
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How COVID changed the production plan
The production was originally planned for India. Patel told ABC News Australia that the COVID-19 pandemic struck while the crew was there, leaving the film close to dead. Patel and co-producer Jomon Thomas devised another plan and moved production to Batam, Indonesia, where a connection helped them find a studio.
The move did not restore a predictable shoot. Patel recalled border closures, restrictions on travel and filming locations, and planned areas sometimes being designated red zones by police. Without the usual crowds or the ability to bring in all the equipment they needed, the team repeatedly had to adapt. Patel called it “a process of adapting at every turn [and] facing catastrophe every day” in an interview with ABC RN’s The Screen Show, published April 10, 2024.
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How the crew improvised on set
With equipment difficult or impossible to ship, the crew made use of what was available. Patel said he taped his iPhone inside a rickshaw to capture shots; he also mentioned mobile phones and GoPros in his AU Review interview. This describes some improvised filming methods, not a claim that the entire movie was shot on phones.
When restrictions and the lack of crowds made background scenes difficult, crew members—including tailors, accountants and lighting staff—appeared on camera as performers. Patel called the approach “by-any-means-necessary filmmaking.” It reflected the practical demands of keeping the production moving, rather than a planned replacement for a conventional crew or equipment package.
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Patel’s injuries added to the strain
Patel said he broke his hand during the first action sequence. ABC News Australia reported that he and cinematographer Sharone Meir continued filming until swelling made treatment necessary. Patel said a doctor in Jakarta inserted a screw and advised him not to strain the hand. The Associated Press also reported Patel’s account that he broke his foot and tore his shoulder; these injury details are attributed to Patel’s recollections.
Looking back, Patel told ABC, “It was truly a humbling experience — I had bitten off way more than I can chew.”
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From a dropped Netflix release to theaters
After the difficult production, Netflix dropped the film, according to the Associated Press. Patel said it was sitting unused and that he was ready to let it go. Jordan Peele watched it and shared it with Universal; Peele and Monkeypaw Productions helped secure its purchase through Peele’s production partnership with Universal. The film opened in theaters on April 5, 2024.
Peele told the AP why he backed a theatrical release: “It was iconic. I felt passionately that it was demanding to be on the big screen.” His intervention changed the film’s route to audiences from the streaming path Patel had expected to a theatrical release.
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What “over ten years” means
The decade-plus figure is Patel’s account of how long he had been carrying and writing the idea, not an independently measured production schedule. The making of the film itself involved a separate, compressed sequence of production setbacks and decisions: an intended India shoot, a pandemic-era move to Batam, improvisation under restrictions, and a new distribution path after Netflix dropped the project.
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