Abhay Deol's surprising regret about Dev D: 'It became cool, but that wasn't the point'

Anurag Kashyap's Dev D starring Abhay Deol, Kalki Koechlin and Mahie Gill in titular roles received a lot of critical appreciation ever since it was released in theatres. Often considered one of Abhay's and Anurag's best works, the film has met with many controversies over the years but remains as iconic as always.

Abhay who played the protagonist in the film that is based on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's Devdas, recently spoke about how he was under the assumption that the film would be about empowering women when he was signing it but later turned out to glamourize substance abuse. 

In a recent interview with Filmfare, Abhay said, "That's why Dev D came to me; the idea was to call out his toxic masculinity and empower the women. That was the idea behind it. I stuck to the book where he dies in the end; but instead of an alcohol or drug overdose, he starts dealing in drugs to support himself, the cops chase him, he doesn't know where to go, so he runs Paro's house and gets shot outside her door." 

He went on to add, "Eventually, the film kind of became cool and people saw that and wanted to do more drugs and alcohol. I was like, 'That was not the point.' I have literally had friends say, 'Please tell my nephew that ecstasy is not good for them'. I also had a friend who called me saying he had finished an entire bottle of vodka. That glamourisation was entirely away from what I had envisioned."

Devendra Sing Dhillon aka Dev, played by Abhay Deol, went onto become an iconic character after the film was released. Anurag Kashyap put his elements and made Dev D into a modern/contemporary adaptation of Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay's Devdas, which had been earlier adapted by Sanjay Leela Bhansali in Bollywood as well. While the novel is set in Bengal, the film takes place in Punjab. All the actors in the film, starting from Kalki, which marked her debut, to Mahie Gill; everyone did a great job.