The 'Slumdog Millionaire' actor has lent his voice to a new National Geographic documentary that shows beautiful aerial views of the country where his ancestors came from.
- Aug 17, 2020
AceShowbiz - Dev Patel narrated new National Geographic documentary "India From Above" from his California driveway.
The Oscar nominee opted out of working from a sound studio due to the coronavirus and instead, producers delivered a portable recording booth that was parked at his home in Los Angeles, where he lent his voice to the project.
"It was like a trailer hitched to a car, that had been completely sanitised," Dev told the Associated Press.
And the star confesses he went "full Attenborough" by channeling iconic nature documentary narrator Sir David Attenborough as he narrated "India From Above" from the mobile booth.
"For me, it was just telling the story of the ingenuity of the people, the everyman. How people find a way in India, no matter how hard the condition is," he shared.
The documentary features never-before-seen drone footage of India's sacred and modern sites, and Dev insists the aerial views on the programme show the spectacular country in an entirely unique light.
"As soon as I step off that plane and out of the airport (in India), you're sucked into this massive humanity, the crowds and the people and your eye level just kind of being swept along with this tide of people. And that will sweep you somewhere really inspiring and quite magical," he said. "But to zoom further and further out and higher and higher. That is pretty special."
Working on the project has inspired Dev, whose parents are both Indian, to explore more of the country, and he is now keen on visiting Loktak Lake, where residents live on small vegetation islands.
"It feels like something out of James Cameron's Avatar movie," he noted. "There's a stillness and a serenity that is just breathtaking."
"India From Above", a two-part National Geographic documentary, premieres this weekend (14-15Aug20).
