Dev Patel was "terrified" he would kill Dame Judi Dench and Bill Nighy while shooting their latest movie.

The actors all appear in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which is about a group of elderly people from the UK who travel to India for a prolonged stay. Dev's character Sonny owns the establishment which isn't quite as the travellers expect.

Sonny is seen on a moped in several scenes, including one where his love interest Sunaina is also in the saddle. Dev had to weave his bike close to one which Bill and Judi were on and developed a cold sweat when he realised what was required.

"There was a great responsibility there. Bill had Judi on the back of his, I had Tena [Desae] and she was like a feather which was good. There is one scene at the end when we go past each other and [raise hands] and that was terrifying because I was like, What if I kill Bill Nighy and Judi Dench? What if I go over a stone? I'm going to be the most hated man in Britain. Judi's like the queen and Bill's cooler than anybody, he's a rock star.' I have crazy thoughts like this all the time but I'm not paranoid," he laughed to Cover Media.

Sonny is an eternal optimist who tries to ensure the visitors from the UK have a great time. Although the character is from an Indian family and his mother expects him to lead a traditional life he has other ideas, which is what attracted Dev to the movie.

"People think all my characters are a big caricature, which it is probably fair to say," he admitted. "I would prefer to say that [Sonny is] very relatable. He's what you relate to someone being but at the same time he has all these little flamboyancies that sound really cool, like he has a girlfriend, which I thought was great, he rode a motorcycle, he wanted to have sex with her. All these things which are cool things, which you don't see a lot, which were kind of why I wanted to do the movie."

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is out in the UK on February 24.