AUSTIN, Texas − A weary-eyed Dev Patel rallied to give a talk at South By Southwest on Tuesday morning after the late-night premiere of his directorial debut at the festival.
“I’ve only had like 30 minutes sleep,” Patel, 33, told a crowd gathered at the Austin Convention Center for the discussion of “Monkey Man” (in theaters April 5). “I’m functioning on Red Bull and truffle fries.”
Patel, who co-wrote and stars as a man looking to avenge his mother’s murder, said the idea for “Monkey Man” stemmed from his grandfather’s captivating retelling of the story of Hanuman, the half-man, half-monkey Hindu deity. The plot was also sparked by the 2012 gang rape and murder of a young woman on a bus in India, and Patel wanted to make a movie about “fighting for what’s right and what’s good.”
