“My hand was like an elephant’s foot”: Dev Patel recalls breaking his hand on the Monkey Man set

At SXSW (South For Southwest Conference and Festivals), actor Dev Patel’s directorial debut Monkey Man was met with an enthusiastic reception. On March 29, 2024, he made an appearance on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon to promote the film. During his conversation with the host, Patel shared the experience of breaking his hand while filming.

“By the end of the day, my hand was like an elephant’s foot,”the actor told Jimmy Fallon.

Despite the difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the cast and crew of Monkey Man persevered through numerous challenges during filming. Due to limited resources, Dev Patel’s broken bone was not digitally removed and instead was treated with a screw.

The film debuted at South by Southwest on March 11, 2024, featuring Patel as well as Sobhita Dhulipala, Sharlto Copley, Pitobash, Vipin Sharma, and other notable actors.

Actor Dev Patel shares harrowing tale of on-set injury during filming of Monkey Man

At the SXSW Film and TV Festival Awards on March 13, two days after its premiere, Dev Patel’s directorial action-drama Monkey Man received the Audience Award for a Headliner film. During a recent appearance on The Tonight Show, the 33-year-old actor shared his challenging experience while making the movie.

“Everything that could’ve gone wrong went wrong… I’m a crash test dummy that my co-star is using my face to break every piece of porcelain in this bathroom, and my hand, I heard it snap,”Patel recounted.

Despite sustaining a broken hand, Patel persevered with filming. He expressed his belief that the success of the film was dependent on his ability to continue, and therefore requested his producer to conceal his injury. Nevertheless, by the end of the day, his hand had swollen to the size of an elephant’s foot, and he had to be flown to Jakarta for medical treatment on a budget private jet.

“The doctor put a screw in my hand and he goes, ‘You cannot put more than a pound or two of pressure on this things otherwise it’s like pulling a bent nail out of wood. You will ruin your bone’,”the actor told Fallon.

Dev Patel, the Slumdog Millionaire actor, showed no signs of slowing down. The very next day, he was back on set, performing stunts once again. In an interview with Fallon, Patel revealed that he wasted no time and returned to the set “straight away”the following day.

“Actually, I went straight back to set the next day, and was throwing myself and bouncing off a window. And the crew, they made a T-shirt.”

Dev Patel presented Fallon with a blue t-shirt of his own, featuring an x-ray of his broken hand printed on the front. The shirt also had a bubble symbolizing the COVID quarantine bubble on the front, and a cartoon monkey on the back in reference to the movie. Patel’s crew had gifted him with this unique t-shirt and he wanted Fallon to have one too.

“One of the guys got my x-ray. They call it ‘the one screw that kept this production alive.’”

Based on the Hindu deity Hanuman, Monkey Man is an action-packed thriller centered around a protagonist named Kid. After his mother is murdered and he witnesses the corrupt nature of society, Kid embarks on a journey of revenge. According to the synopsis on IMDb:

“An anonymous young man unleashes a campaign of vengeance against the corrupt leaders who murdered his mother and continue to systemically victimize the poor and powerless.”

Jordon Peele, the director of Get Out, has joined forces with Univeral Pictures to bring the film to theaters. Monkey Man, which was filmed and takes place primarily in India with an Indian-dominated cast, is scheduled to hit theaters on April 5, 2024.