Dev Patel's Harrowing 125-Minute Thriller Is a Sudden Streaming Sensation

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A still from Hotel Mumbai featuring Dev Patel as Arjun in a line with the rest of the other waiters receiving orders from a superior before the terrorist attack

Published Mar 14, 2026, 4:40 PM EDT

Rohan Naahar is a Weekend News Writer for Collider. From Francois Ozon to David Fincher, he'll watch anything once.

He has covered everything from Marvel to the Oscars, and Marvel at the Oscars. He also writes obsessively about the box office, charting the many hits and misses that are released weekly, and how their commercial performance shapes public perception. In his time at Collider, he has also helped drive diversity by writing stories about the multiple Indian film industries, with a goal of introducing audiences to a whole new world of cinema.

The debate around true crime can also be extended to films and shows about terror attacks. Only a handful of them highlight the experiences of ordinary people caught in the crossfire. The film United 93 comes to mind, as does Captain Phillips. Both movies were directed by Paul Greengrass, who also made 22 July, a harrowing thriller that traced the aftermath of the mass shooting that claimed scores of lives in Norway in 2011. Greengrass' sensibilities greatly influenced director Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty, as well as a 2018 thriller that depicted the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks with graphic realism. The 2018 movie earned mostly positive reviews, but received criticism for exploiting a real-life tragedy for dramatic effect. You can judge for yourself, as the film landed on Netflix this month.

The movie featured an ensemble cast including Dev Patel, Armie Hammer, Nazanin Boniadi, Anupam Kher, Jason Isaacs, and Natasha Liu Bordizzo. An Australian production, the movie was a modest box-office hit. It grossed a little more than $30 million worldwide against a reported budget of $25 million. The movie followed a handful of characters — both the staff and guests — during the attacks on the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai on November 26, 2008. Terrorists held the hotel siege for several days before being overwhelmed by the Indian security forces.

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The Harrowing Thriller Was Based on a Real-Life Tragedy

The movie in question is called Hotel Mumbai. It holds a "Certified Fresh" 76% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics' consensus reads, "Its depiction of real-life horror will strike some as exploitative, but Hotel Mumbai remains a well-made dramatization of tragic events." The film's audience score is resting at an even better 88%. It received 13 nominations at the AACTAs — Australia's equivalent of the Oscars — winning in two categories. The film's director, Anthony Maras, is now putting together the World War II film Pressure, starring Andrew Scott, Brendan Fraser, Kerry Condon, and Damian Lewis. Hotel Mumbai isn't the only movie about the 26/11 Mumbai attacks; Indian productions such as The Attacks of 26/11, Mumbai Diaries: 26/11, State of Siege: 26/11, and Major all present the real-life tragedy from different perspectives. Hotel Mumbai is now streaming on Netflix. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.