Actor Makarand Deshpande recently revealed that Dev Patel, the director of Monkey Man, had to remove a significant scene from the film featuring him over political reasons.
In an interview with Siddharth Kannan, the actor said that Patel had informed him about the change before the US premiere of the film and had also apologised to him for the same.
Describing the scene as the soul of the film, Deshpande said, "For the premiere of Monkey Man, I went to California. Before that, Dev Patel said he wants to have a word with me. He said, ‘That’s the scene I love the most, but we had to edit it for for some political (reason), you understand’ and he just mumbled. I kept on looking at him and said, ‘Dev, wasn’t that scene the philosophy of your film?’ He was like, ‘Oh yes, man, but you will still like your role, I am sorry, but you will like it.'"
“When I saw the film, I said no problem. But I know that scene — woh agar rehta toh kya maza aata (If the scene was kept, it would have been great). It had that punch. An edited scene won’t matter to the audience, but it matters to the actor. In my understanding, it was the rooh (soul) of the film, it may not be for Dev. It is getting a lot of critical acclaim, might be in the Oscar race later and is like their Satya,” he added.
Monkey Man follows the story of a man who has recently gotten out of prison and is forced to deal with the evils or “corporate greed and eroding spiritual values” of the modern world.
In addition to Patel and Deshpande, the film also stars Sharlto Copley, Sobhita Dhulipala, Pitobash, Vipin Sharma , Ashwini Kalsekar, Adithi Kalkunte, and Sikandar Kher.
The revenge action drama, which marks Patel's directorial debut, had its worldwide premiere on 5 April; however, the film is yet to receive a green signal from the Indian censor board.