San Jose man wins Dev Patel look-alike contest

Among 20 contestants, Jaipreet Hundal walked away with a $50 check, a “Monkey Man” statue, and a bouquet, clinching the title in this one-of-a-kind gathering.

Hundal, a product manager at TikTok, won the ‘Dev Patel Look-Alike’ contest with the audience's vote / Instagram

Jaipreet Hundal, a 25-year-old from San Jose, stole the spotlight at Dolores Park on Nov.10, winning a quirky contest to determine which young South Asian man most resembled Oscar-nominated actor Dev Patel.

Among 20 contestants, Hundal walked away with a $50 check, a “Monkey Man” statue, and a bouquet, clinching the title in this one-of-a-kind gathering.

Hundal, a product manager at TikTok, won the ‘Dev Patel Look-Alike’ contest with the audience's vote, despite not dressing up or reenacting scenes from Patel’s films like many of his competitors.

“My girlfriend hypes me up all the time... she always says I look like Dev Patel or (Bollywood actor) Ranveer Singh,” Hundal told the San Francisco Chronicle. “I didn’t realize I’d actually win.”

The event was organized by two friends, Sitara Bellam, 26, and Tasnim Khandakar, 27, who conceived the idea after attending a Timothée Chalamet look-alike contest in New York City. “Someone was like, ‘Well, we have the demographic for a Dev Patel one!’” Bellam explained to NBC News. What began as a joke for their friends in San Francisco quickly gained traction after Bellam put up a single flier in Berkeley.

“I was genuinely blown away by the crowd and the interest in the event,” Bellam said, adding, “I’m really excited to be able to celebrate brown/South Asian men.”

Unlike Chalamet, who surprised fans by attending his look-alike contest in New York, Dev Patel did not make an appearance. However, the event’s success highlighted the growing interest in celebrating diverse cultural representation.

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