Abhay Deol reveals how he turned a daring ‘Dev.D’ moment into a standout moment

Abhay Deol recalled a creative exchange with Anurag Kashyap behind an unconventional scene in Dev.D, ahead of its re-release, highlighting collaborative improvisation that shaped the film’s bold storytelling and memorable character dynamics

Mumbai: As his 2009 romantic drama “Dev.D” is all set to re-release on Friday, actor Abhay Deol reminisced about a creatively charged moment with director Anurag Kashyap, which shaped in making one of the most unconventional scenes in the moments in the film.

Abhay shared a scene from the film, where he meets actress Kalki Koechlin’s character Chanda, a sex worker at night, while continuing with her studies during the day. The scene shows Abhay’s character, Dev, waiting outside a room while Chanda is inside, seemingly engaged in an intimate moment. When Dev eventually enters, he realizes that she isn’t with anyone physically, but is instead involved in a private, intimate phone conversation.

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Talking about the same, Abhay wrote how the scene was made, he wrote: “Anurag: ‘you sit here waiting to be let into Chanda’s room and you can hear her having sex’. He said that with a mischievous, almost perverse glint in his eyes (sic).” “Me: (a little grossed out but also enjoying Anurag’s sense of humor), ‘but Anurag, Kalki can speak Tamil, Hindi, and English. What if it turns out to be that she’s having phone sex with someone who has a fetish for sex talk in various languages and accents? Dev and the audience discover that once he enters her room?’ (sic)” “Anurag pauses, the glint in his eyes gets brighter and his smile gets wider. Nothing makes a scene better than a creative flow between an actor and a director. DEV D IS RE RELEASING ON THE 24th OF APRIL (TOMORROW BABY!) AT A PVR CINEMA NEAR YOU!!!! (sic).”

Dev.D is is a modern-day adaptation of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s 1917 Bengali novel, Devdas. It also stars Mahie Gill. The film is set in modern-day Punjab and Delhi, and follows Devendra Singh “Dev” Dhillon, a privileged young man who descends into alcohol and drug addiction after a failed relationship with his childhood love Parminder “Paro” Kaur, eventually forming an unexpected bond with Chanda, an escort navigating her own emotional trauma.