Dev Patel Cries After His Directorial Debut “Monkey Man” Gets Rousing Standing Ovation at SXSW World Premiere

"I put my everything into it, and I hope the world responds to it," Dev Patel tells PEOPLE of his new movie 'Monkey Man'

Dev Patel is feeling the love after the world premiere of his directorial debut.

Patel's new movie Monkey Man, which he co-wrote, directed and stars in, made its premiere at SXSW on Monday, and the 33-year-old star appeared emotional when he took the stage when the credits rolled after the film's one hour, 53-minute runtime.

A video shared by Variety on X Monday night shows Patel walking out on stage to a significant standing ovation. The Slumdog Millionaire star can be seen placing his hand over his heart during the clip and at one point even puts his hand to his face, turns away from the crowd and appears to wipe tears from his eyes in response to enthusiasm for his new movie.

Monkey Man stars the Oscar-nominated actor as a man named Kid "who ekes out a meager living in an underground fight club where, night after night, wearing a gorilla mask, he is beaten bloody by more popular fighters for cash," according to Universal Pictures' official synopsis for the movie. Kid ultimately seeks out revenge against a group of men who left him with childhood trauma, according to the synopsis.

"I mean, I've been hibernating for a while. I don't really feel fit for public consumption right now. I've been in a dark room," Patel, who makes his first feature-length film appearance since 2021 with Monkey Man, told PEOPLE on the red carpet for the premiere Monday. "The paint's fairly dry on this thing, but it's huge."

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The movie's upcoming release first made noise in January when news broke that the film was moving from a Netflix release to theatrical distribution with Universal. At that time, multiple outlets reported that Nope filmmaker and producer Jordan Peele pushed to release Monkey Man in theaters after he first saw the movie and helped Universal acquire it.

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"There are so many times we almost faced absolute catastrophe with this film, and for Universal to see it, have that response, Jordan, to see it, pick it up off the floor, brush the dust off it and put it on the mantelpiece again, is a huge thing," Patel told PEOPLE of the movie's journey Monday. "I put my everything into it, and I hope the world responds to it."

Related: Dev Patel Opens Up About 'One of the Worst Movies' He's Ever Done: 'I Didn't Really Flourish'

Patel expanded on the "absolute catastrophe" Monkey Man's production faced during a post-screening Q&A, noting that he sustained multiple injuries while making the movie and faced significant production issues while filming during the COVID-19 pandemic, per The Hollywood Reporter. Some scenes in the movie were even filmed on Patel's cell phone due to difficulties with camera equipment, the outlet reported.

Monkey Man will premiere in theaters on April 5.

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