Making what Bollywood couldn't, Abhay Deol shared on Instagram the struggle that went behind getting his 2009 film Dev. D on the big screen. Sharing the character poster of his film Dev. D which was directed by Anurag Kashyap, the actor revealed how his story was rejected by several people before Anurag finally gave it a go-ahead. Dev.D was a psychedelic take on the iconic original story - Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's Devdas which has been adapted several times over the years. Dev.D also starred Mahie Gill, Kalki Koechlin, among others. Nawazuddin Siddiqui also appeared as one of the band singers in the Emotional Attyachar song that went on the become one of the most famous songs of that year.
Abhay shared on Instagram, “Dev.D” released in 2009. I spent a year narrating the idea to several people before I got Anurag on board to direct it.
I remember people’s reaction upon hearing my narration, it was always, “it’s too much of an art-film”. Lucky for me Anurag got it.
I had read the book and I could see that the character was a chauvinist, a misogynist, entitled, and arrogant. Yet he had been romanticized for decades! The women on the other hand were strong and had integrity, but there was still that expectation for them to love their man no matter what. I wanted to change that. I wanted to empower them, shed the image of the “good, devoted, woman”. It was time to make them independent, not defined by the man they love, or by men in general. Which is why Paro calls out Dev’s faults and puts him in his place. In my version Dev gets shot by the police (he becomes a drug dealer) outside Paro’s house and dies just like in the book. Chanda does not fall in love with him, and neither is she ashamed of being an East European high class escort (again, in my version ). She’s the strongest character of the 3, and isn’t afraid of being judged. She does empathize with Dev, seeing how broken he is, and I went with the “prostitute with the heart of gold” theme from the book. Anurag felt a happy ending would make the film more accepted by the audience, and his twist was to have Dev & Chanda fall in love. My vision was too dark! I went with the flow, and even brought my buddies @twilightplayers to feature in it. The rest is history. #makingwhatbollywouldnt #dev."
Anurag recently recalled that it was painfully difficult to work with Abhay and that he hasn't spoken much with him after the film. "It was painfully difficult to work with him. I don’t really have great working memories with him. And haven’t talked to him much since I finished shooting," the filmmaker revealed.
On the work front, Abhay was last seen in Netflix film What Are The Odds!
(Source: Instagram)
