After wowing audiences in theatres, Dev Patel’s directorial debut ‘Monkey Man’ has finally released on PVOD and digital platforms from 23rd April—but only, not in India. But despite the fact that Monkey Man has not released on any OTT platform in India, the film has created a massive frenzy among film fans in India.
Hundreds of Indian film fans watched Monkey Man yesterday, and took to social media to heap praise on the film, and its director cum leading man, Dev Patel. The buzz and deluge of posts about Monkey Man on X is such that Monkey Man has been trending on X since last night, and continues to do so, even this morning.
But…where did these Indian film fans watch Monkey Man; since the film has neither released in theatres nor on VOD in India?
Guess what? Dev Patel’s Monkey Man has done the implausible – it has broken the internet! Errr no, actually, Monkey Man has broken torrent websites; and Telegram too. And all this because the film released on digital platforms in the US and other global regions.
It’s common knowledge that once a movie has hit paid video-on-demand sites like BookMyShow Stream and the Prime Video India Rental Store, it is barely a matter of minutes when the full movie finds its way to torrent sites, and ultimately is uploaded on Telegram. From there, it’s very easy for anyone with a device to download the latest movie and watch it illegally.
And thus, hundreds of audiences in India have watched Monkey Man already, albeit illegally. The people who have watched Monkey Man illegally even include well-known personalities such as critics Subhash Jha and Sayantan Ghosh, author Aseem Chhabra, among others.
People are calling Monkey Man a blockbuster on torrent.
One youtuber says, “The pace of torrent sharing is tremendous. It’s been many years since I witnessed people downloading a film torrent very ridiculously. I haven’t seen this kind of speed on a torrent file in years.”
To which, another torrent enthusiast commented, “Overall seeders (for Monkey Man) are like above 5 lakh in India. That’s already a blockbuster theatrical opening numbers for that kind of film.”
Well, if not in the theatres in India, Monkey Man is a bomb on streaming at least. The film is a vengeance drama that talks about the hypocrisy of religion, the tyranny of caste, and the oppression of a corrupt government. It shines a spotlight on the corruption at every level in governance, and how it leaves the poor at the mercy of a powerful coterie.
Monkey Man is helmed by Dev Patel in his directorial debut. It is written by Patel, along with Paul Angunawela and John Collee. The film stars Dev Patel, Sharlto Copley, Pitobash, Sobhita Dhulipala, Sikandar Kher, Vipin Sharma, Ashwini Kalsekar, Adithi Kalkunte and Makarand Deshpande in pivotal roles. The movie was made specifically for a streaming release on Netflix, before Jordan Peele saw the big screen potential in it and decided to release it in theatres first.
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