“I wanted to shed the image of the 'good, devoted, woman',” says Abhay Deol sharing his version of Dev D

After sharing his thoughts on Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara on Friday in his Instagram post, Abhay Deol has now shared with his fans the thoughts he had for his 2009 film Dev D. The actor revealed how he spent an entire year narrating the idea to several people and then having to change the end for a happy ending. 

“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,” he started.

Talking about why he chose to do Dev D, Abhay wrote, “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,” he wrote. 

Abhay then wrote about ‘his version’ of the film, which was not ultimately how it was portrayed. “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,” the actor revealed. 

On why the film was not eventually made according to his vision, Abhay wrote, “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.d.”

 

View this post 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.d

A post shared by Abhay Deol (@abhaydeol) on Jun 20, 2020 at 2:16am PDT

Dev D was written and directed by Anurag Kashyap and produced by Ronnie Screwvala. It is a modern-day take on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's classic Bengali novel Devdas. It has earlier been adapted by PC Barua, Bimal Roy and Sanjay Leela Bhansali. 

ALSO READ: Abhay Deol boycotted the awards after he and Farhan Akhtar were demoted to “supporting actors” in Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

from Featured Movie News | Featured Bollywood News - Bollywood Hungama https://ift.tt/2YhwzyF