Dev Patel Lookalike Contest Video Goes Viral – “Sorry Guys, He’s Taken”

Dev Patel fans flocked to a San Francisco park to attend a competition to choose the actor's lookalike, but there was bad news – the winner has already been chosen.

Hundreds of people attended the event at Dolores Park over the weekend and were thrilled by winner Jaipreet Hundal, 25, who was chosen as the man most like himself Slumdog Millionaire Star. As a nod to Patel's film, he pocketed $50 and a monkey statue Monkey manand charmed the crowd as he whipped up a storm.

Snippets of the event have now gone viral on the internet, showing Hundal looking a lot like Patel, and people are blown away.

“The winner of today's Dev Patel Lookalike Contest in San Francisco, California (sorry guys, it's taken),” one user wrote on X, formerly Twitter, alongside two videos from the event. The post was viewed over 154,000 times.

“He's so handsome!” One person gushed about X, while another asked: “Is he single?!”

“I want him!” joked another. “This is so good!” said someone else on the platform, while another admirer simply posted: “Oh my god!”

Newsweek has emailed representatives for Patel seeking comment.

However, it turns out that Hundal is in a relationship and it seems that it was his girlfriend who gave him the idea that he could be a doppelganger for British star Patel and encouraged him to take part in the competition.

“My girlfriend keeps exaggerating me… she always says I look like Dev Patel or (Bollywood actor) Ranveer Singh,” he told the San Francisco Chronicle. “I didn’t know I was actually going to win.”

The event was the latest installment in the current craze for celebrity lookalike competitions. Other recent events have sought out members of the audience who resemble stars such as Harry Styles and Timothee Chalamet.

The Dev Patel competition was organized by friends Sitara Bellam, Tasnim Khandakar and Sahana Rangarajan. The plan was to have a Robert Patinson lookalike competition, but they said they changed their minds and went with Patel because other current competitions tended to focus on white actors.

“I really feel like South Asian actors have always been a little marginalized, and I think now knowing that Dev Patel can create such a big audience is positive,” Khandakar said.

Patel, 34, rose to fame in the 2008 film directed by Danny Boyle Slumdog Millionaire. He played Jamal Malik, a boy from the slums who becomes the winner in the Indian version of the quiz show Who wants to become a millionaire?

The actor later starred in films such as The Last Airbender, the best exotic Marigold hotel And Chappy. In 2016, he starred in a hit drama Lion starring Nicole Kidman, won a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor and was nominated for an Oscar for his performance.