Rayners Lane Taekwon-do Academy

Thanks to his casting as a boy from the slums of Mumbai in the multi-award winning Slumdog Millionaire, Dev Patel is currently one of the most recognizable new British actors around. What a lot of people don’t know, however, is that he’s also a keen student of Ch’ang Hon Taekwon-do. In this exclusive interview to celebrate the launch of Totally Tae Kwon Do magazine, Dev speaks candidly about his history and training in the art he loves.

Dev Patel’s original, physical, dojang no longer exists. Based in an old community recreational hall, it was demolished some two years ago to make way for a new home development project. But the memories remain.

He recalls a slogan on a poster that hung on the wall of his first training hall: ‘Martial Arts is a way of life’.

“I very much believe this to be true - I don't think I will ever stop,” says the 18 year-old star of the Oscar-nominated Slumdog Millionaire and 1st Dan student at the Rayners Lane Taekwon-do Academy in North West London.

Patel still trains in Ch’ang Hon Taekwon-do at the same club, in a new dojang, a mere 200 metres away from the old one.

The actor began studying the art when he was ten years old. Not only was he a very lively child, but he has also fallen in love with Martial Arts movies. “I was very hyper,” he explains. “I had way too much energy in school. I needed something to focus my mind on, and channel all of that wasted energy - and Taekwon-do was the answer.”

An avid watcher of action
flicks, he grew up
watching the likes of
Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan
and Jet Li show off their
famous fighting skills on
the silver screen - Enter
the Dragon is one of his
favourite films – but little
did he know at the time
that he would soon
begin walking a path
that would take him, via
the dojang, to the very
heart of Hollywood.

Breakthrough
As he began to develop
as a martial artist,
Patel’s desire to become
an actor continued to
grow, but it was not until
his mother saw an open
audition in a newspaper for a new British TV teen drama Skins, set in Bristol, England, that he got his big break.

Before hitting TV screens as Anwar Kharral, he had plugged away at school as an outstanding drama student, but beyond the four walls of his school and home, his talent remained unknown.

The show, which told the funny and quirky story of a group of teenagers at a Sixth Form college on the cusp of adulthood, was an instant hit and was nominated for Best Drama Series at the British Academy Television Awards in 2008. Patel’s portrayal of Kharral, a young Pakistani Muslim trying to come to terms with his religion and life in modern Britain won him many accolades and fans.

One of the most important of those, was the daughter of one of Britain’s most celebrated directors – Danny Boyle, the man behind hits such as Trainspotting and 28 Days Later.

Boyle was looking for a young actor to fill the role of a poor Indian kid from the slums in Mumbai for his new project Slumdog Millionaire, but was getting nowhere through the usual Bollywood casting channels. Boyle’s daughter suggested and Patel soon found himself in India, shooting a feature-length film.

The touching story of a boy who is interrogated and tortured by the police who become suspicious of his success on the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? – a game show he only entered to try and win the heart of the love of his life, has touched a cord with worldwide audiences.

Thanks to the runaway success of the film, which at first struggled to secure cinema distribution, Patel has been propelled into the big time – mixing with A-listers and appearing on chat shows and at awards ceremonies on both sides of the Atlantic.

Training
So how does a young actor with the world at his feet, keep going with his training?