Patel starred in the commercially successful romantic comedy "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" (2012) and its 2015 sequel, the science fiction film "Chappie" (2015), and the HBO drama series "The Newsroom" (2012–2014). 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). For the latter, he won the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He is the third actor of Indian descent to receive an Oscar nomination.