For Slumdog Millionaire actor Dev Patel life came a full circle while he filmed for Garth Davis's British film, Lion, slated to release early next year.

From acting with Irrfan Khan and Anil Kapoor in his Hollywood debut to working with Nawazuddin Siddiqui in his next, he admits he loves sharing screen space with Indian actors but is not keen on doing a Bollywood film. “I am more keen to bring the essence of our culture and the country's heritage to the international market,“ says the 25-year-old actor who was in India for the 46th International Film Festival of Goa. His biopic on the life of Indian Mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan was the opening film.

The British actor whose parents are native-Indian filmed with Nawaz last month in Kolkata and enjoyed the “bromance“. “We have quite a few scenes together which is fabulous since Nawaz is a great actor,“ says Dev, adding that Nawaz's pronounced Indian accent has rubbed off on him.

The film, the book adaptation of A Long way Home, follows a five-year-old Indian boy who is lost on the streets of Kolkata, thousands of miles away from home. He survives many ordeals before being adopted by an Austrialn couple, Sue and John Brierly, played by Nicole Kidman and David Wenham. Twenty-five years later, the young man, Saroo Brierly (Dev Patel), sets out to find his lost family and the man, Nawaz's character, who taught him how to survive on the streets of the city. “It's an interesting relationship between the two,“ says Dev, admitting he keeps receiving many Hindi films scripts, some extremely interesting, but wants to stick to the “Wild Wild West“ for now. “This year, two interesting Hindi films came my way, but I turned them down. But, hey, never say never, right?“ he grins.

Ask him if there's a Bollywood actor he would kill to work with and he quips, “Shah Rukh Khan, my all time favourite. I would love to work with him, some day soon I hope,“ he says.