Dev Patel has worked with Steven Spielberg.
Dev Patel . His breakthrough came in 2008 with the leading role of Jamal Malik in Danny Boyle 's drama Slumdog Millionaire , which won the Academy Award for Best Picture , and for which he was nominated for the SAG Award for Best Supporting Actor and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor . Patel went on to star in the highly successful romantic comedy The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel ( 2012 ) and its 2015 sequel , the fantasy film The Last Airbender ( 2010 ) , and the science fiction film Chappie ( 2015 ) . In 2015 , Patel starred as the mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan in the biopic The Man Who Knew Infinity , and the following year he played Saroo Brierley in the drama Lion ( 2016 ) .