Abhay Deol and Anurag Kashyap’s modern-day Devdas sports jeans and T-shirts. Moreover he doesn’t die, but ends up with Chandramukhi instead. Read more.

“It’s the drunken man’s ballad. Imagine how creative you can get with it,” Abhay Deol chuckles incessantly over the phone.

“The pathos, the misery, it’s all romantic. But think about it realistically, why would you want to kill a man in love?”

To think of it, he’s right. Why must one of India’s greatest love stories end in a tragedy? Hence, Deol stars in Anurag Kashyap’s new Devdas. Or should we call it what they do, Dev.D?

Deol devised the story and Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwani have written the screenplay for the modern avatar. Deol says he pitched the idea to Kashyap at a football match and convinced the filmmaker to cast him in the lead.

“I had this idea about the relevance of Devdas in today’s era and I realised what applied to a devastated man in that period, doesn’t now. There will be rage not self-pity and he’ll probably recover from his drunken phase and then fall in love again. That is what happens. How many Devdas’ and Devdasis do you know?” Deol quips.

The modern Devdas sports jeans and T-shirts. Moreover he doesn’t die, but ends up with Chandramukhi instead.

“Dev.D will fall in love again. We have made so many movies in the past few decades showing how there is a one-love notion. There have been triangles and even dysfunctional relationships shown on screen.

We’ll let him love again,” Deol adds, excitedly. Kashyap has cast Punjabi actress Mahi Gill as Paro and is auditioning for a Chandramukhi who will be probably a fresh face.