Hotel Mumbai star Dev Patel opens up about filming 26/11 movie: I really wanted to put my face to it

The 2008 Mumbai attacks have been one of the most talked-about cowardly and disturbing acts of terrorism that ever took place in India. The shock waves of these attacks still occupy a large part in our society and have been the inspiration for Anthony Maras’s film Hotel Mumbai. The flick features Dev Patel, Armie Hammer, Nazanin Boniadi, Anupam Kher, Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Jason Isaacs, Suhail Nayyar, Nagesh Bhosle and Natasha Liu Bordizzo in key roles.

It is a retelling of the incident from the point of view of the people that were trapped and the hotel staff that tried to save them. Hotel Mumbai was premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on 7 September 2018 and received a positive response from the critics. It is all set to release in India on November 29, 2019.

In an interaction, Dev Patel opened up about his character in the film and said, “I play a young man named Arjun, who is from the slums and he is a waiter and he comes in very early in the story. He has a young child to feed and a wife. The great thing about the hotels is they are a kind of microcosm where the society can collide, you know the poor from the slums and the absolute rich.”

He also spoke about why it was important for him to be a part of the project to which he said, “I was watching it (the attack) at home, I had just landed in London when I found out that the attacks happened and you know the whole family was watching in terror and I knew were going to tell this story about the bravery of the stuff and the survivors and the great people who sacrificed themselves. I really wanted to put my face to it. So, it was a very easy decision really.”

The actor was all praise for filmmaker Anthony Mara and others who are associated with the project.