On Saturday, Dev Patel, the star of The Man Who Knew Infinity who portrayed the journey of real-life math genius Srinivasa Ramanujan in the 1900s, spoke at a press conference at Dubai International Film Festival (Diff). Director Matt Brown and author of the eponymous novel, Robert Kanigel, were also in attendance.
For Patel, the film was a continuation of a cultural awakening that began with his breakout role in Slumdog Millionaire. He was ashamed that he hadn’t known of Ramanujan before the script fell in his lap.
“When I was growing up in school, I shunned my cultural heritage. [On Slumgdog Millionaire], I got to really experience India for the first time. A part of my personality was nourished. I feel a great responsibility in breathing life into Indian characters,” he said.
Kanigel spent six weeks in India and England, delving into the world of Ramanujan and G. H. Hardy, the math theorist at Trinity College, Cambridge, who took Ramanujan under his wing. Hardy wrote extensively of this partnership, while many Indians wrote reminisces about Ramanujan’s life.
Both Patel and Brown first heard of Ramanajun from a reference in Good Will Hunting, another film about the intersection of genius and humanity.
Although Brown was initially intimidated by the potentially dense subject matter in Kanigel’s book, he was able to see the philosophy of it.
“These were artists, these pure mathematicians,” said Brown. “That [passion was] something I could relate to, and audiences could relate to.”
The movie is set to release in April of 2016.
