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Dev Patel in Monkey Man

On Tuesday, while believers celebrated Hanuman Jayanti, social media was abuzz with Dev Patel's Monkey Man. While uncertainty prevails around the India release of Patel's maiden directorial venture, it won wide acclaim on its US release earlier this month and is now available on video-on-demand platforms in the US. Consequently, pirated copies have surfaced online. Sources tell us that the film's pirated link was leaked on late April 22, and was all over social media by the next day.

A source reveals that the Warner Bros team, which manages Universal Pictures' releases in India, swooped into action on Monday night itself. "But it took the team more than 12 hours to find the source link. After the first link was pulled down by Tuesday afternoon, it was circulated by people on Google Drive. It wasn't until 8.30 pm on Tuesday that all links were successfully pulled down. Several accounts that had shared the link on X have been sent copyright violation notices by the micro-blogging site."

Monkey Man sees Patel play the central character, who sets out on a quest to avenge his mother's death at the hands of corrupt leaders and emerges as a defender of the marginalised. The source adds, "The film has been awaiting a censor clearance in India since March. While the extreme violence is a concern, many real-life incidents have been depicted, making it a sensitive release in the election year."