A few things are so far away from us but they appear to be so near. You must have read that warning on the mirror that says “Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear.” Monkey Man is exactly that. Technically the movie was never released in India.
Not in the theaters, never on VOD. But, are Indians away from it? Hell, no.
Let’s give you a formal intro to the film and tell you something that you may already know.
Monkey Man is an action thriller directed by Dev Patel in his directorial debut, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Paul Angunawela and John Collee. The film stars Patel, Sharlto Copley, Pitobash Tripathy, Vipin Sharma, Sikandar Kher, Adithi Kalkunte, Sobhita Dhulipala, Ashwini Kalsekar, Makarand Deshpande, Jatin Malik, and the legendary Tabla player Zakir Hussain.
Monkey Man was released theatrically in the United States and Canada by Universal Pictures on April 5, 2024. The film had highly positive reviews from critics and was a box-office hit too. It grossed $32 million worldwide against a $10 million budget.
Regardless, Indians are watching the movie for free. How to do that? Obviously through Piracy. The political scenario in India didn’t allow the makers to release the film but the setting was quintessentially Indian and thus Indians were highly excited about it. As a result, the trending list at torrent websites are overwhelmed by the number of people downloading Monkey Man. If people want to watch something, they watch that thing. Limitations like this hardly matters.