Anurag Kashyap dismisses Abhay Deol’s claims of pitching ‘Dev D’ to him and says he came up with the idea while watching a football match

Anurag Kashyap has recently offered a detailed account of how the film ‘Dev D’ came to be, seemingly refuting Abhay Deol’s long-standing claim of having originated the idea. Over the years, the actor-director duo have exchanged barbs regarding the film’s concept and production, with each taking their own side in what appears to be a creative feud that spans more than a decade.
Anurag on how ‘Dev D’ was born
Speaking at an event at Annapurna College of Film and Media in Hyderabad, Anurag Kashyap recounted the origins of the project in a manner that left little room for ambiguity. After the bans on his first two films, ‘Paanch’ and ‘Black Friday,’ Kashyap found himself at a crossroads in his career. He encountered a producer who had an interest in making a love story. In that moment of inspiration, Kashyap boldly declared, “I told the producer, ‘I will give you a Devdas.’ But I hated that book so much.”

Vikramaditya Motwane’s role
Kashyap went on to explain that the film was not born solely from his own vision. Instead, it was based on a script by Vikramaditya Motwane, who had previously worked as an assistant to Sanjay Leela Bhansali on his 2002 film ‘Devdas’. Kashyap’s creative approach was to take Motwane’s script and transform it completely. He stated, “Motwane had worked on Devdas with Sanjay Leela Bhansali as an assistant, so I told him, ‘You adapt Devdas, and I will adapt your script.’ I took his script and changed it completely, basing it on things that were happening at that time.”
The beauty of adapting a well-known story, as Kashyap noted, lies in the inherent freedom it affords the filmmaker. With audiences already aware of the classic Devdas narrative, Kashyap did not feel compelled to recreate the characters’ origins from scratch. Instead, he used the known beats of the story to experiment and tell a different kind of tale. “In the end, when the self-destruction of the character doesn’t happen, that surprises them,” he added. This innovative take on a familiar story underpinned his desire to explore themes beyond the predictable, especially as it related to self-pity and the emotional baggage associated with it.

In this context, Kashyap’s treatment of the theme of self-destruction was both deliberate and subversive. His disdain for the conventional portrayal of Devdas in earlier adaptations was palpable when he remarked, “We are the only country that has written the largest songs on self-pity, and we celebrate self-pity.” This critique is not merely a dismissal of tradition but rather a conscious decision to invert the narrative. The film’s soundtrack, including the creation of ‘Emotional Atyachar,’ was designed as an antidote to the melancholic self-pity that had become a hallmark of the original story.
The football match planted the seed
Interestingly, Kashyap revealed that the spark for this radical reinterpretation was ignited during an ordinary outing. While watching a football match with Vikramaditya Motwane and Abhay Deol, a casual conversation took an unexpected turn. One of them began discussing a stripper in the US named Chandramukhi, and it was this offhand remark that planted the seed for a modern adaptation of a classic narrative. This moment, seemingly trivial at the time, would later evolve into a film that challenged long-held conventions in Indian cinema.
Abhay Deol’s claims
The narrative of ‘Dev D’ has not been without its controversies. In 2024, marking the 15th anniversary of the film, Abhay Deol took to Instagram and reminded his followers of his claim regarding the film’s concept. He wrote, “It’s 15 years today since the release of Dev.D. I still remember pitching the idea of a contemporary, musical version of Devdas to Anurag at the Juhu Marriott. The shock and excitement on his face are etched in my memory.” Kashyap’s recent detailed narrative can be seen as a direct response to these claims.
Back in 2020, Anurag Kashyap claimed that Abhay Deol was difficult to work with on the sets of 'Dev D', accusing him of demanding luxury while the crew worked on a tight budget. Speaking to HuffPost, Anurag stated, “He (Abhay) wanted to do artistic movies but also wanted the mainstream benefits. The benefits and luxuries of being a ‘Deol’. He would stay in a five-star hotel while the entire crew stayed in Paharganj for a film that was made on a very tight budget.”