Dev Patel: To Infinity And Beyond

The global success of Slumdog Millionaire thrust Dev Patel into the limelight at an early age. Eight years on, the actor talks fame, fortune and the future with Matthew Scott.

- Matthew Scott

Dev Patel had every right to be swept up in the madness of the movie industry. The British-Indian actor was just 18 when he landed his first big-screen roll: that of plucky dreamer Jamal Malik in director Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire. The 2008 film’s enormous success meant the young man from Harrow in northwest London was soon rubbing shoulders with the biggest celebrity names on the planet.

Slumdog was a sensation, winning eight Oscars – including Best Picture – and taking close to US$380 million at the box office, with much of the critical and public attention centred on Patel’s nuanced performance. For many young men, it might have proven too much to handle, but to Patel’s credit he took it all in his stride. Since then, the 25-year-old’s reputation, both as an artist and as an individual, has continued to grow.

In December, Patel was among the stars who converged on Marina Bay Sands for the 26th Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF), bringing his latest production – director Matt Brown’s The Man Who Knew Infinity – to town as one of the festival’s three special presentations. And the actor showed fans just how comfortable he is with the role he now plays in real life: that of an acclaimed international superstar.

Fame, Patel insists, has not fazed him. “Not at all,” he says. “To be doing what I am doing – to be actually doing something that I can call a career and something that completely consumes me and is an obsession – is a very blessed position to be in. I am so excited that I get to travel and see the world with something that I am really passionate about. It’s a dream.”