MUMBAI: Director Anurag Kashyap, who is known for making dark films that revolve around characters with shades of grey, is ready with his next film Dev D.
The film stars, Abhay Deol, Kalki and Mahi Gill. Both the girls mark their debut with this film.
Kashyap has experimented with a different look in Dev D. Speaking to Businessofcinema.com, he said, "What is the sense of doing the same thing all the time; I keep trying to re-invent myself."
Even though he is counted as one of the better directors, none of his films have really left a mark or done wonders at the box office. Banking on Dev D, he says, "I have never been bothered about my films not doing well, as long as I am allowed to make films. But after No Smoking, it felt like nobody would let me make a film so that was when it did bother me, and am hopeful that after Dev D, that should change."
Post the failure of No Smoking, Kashyap wants to make sure that Dev D does well. He says, "Since No Smoking didn’t do well, I have tried to make Dev D more accessable. The audience should get the movie and understand it."
It has been said that Dev D is a take on the earlier Devdas, Kashyap however says that the two films are completely different. He says, "Except for the starting point and the names of the characters like Dev, Chunni, Paro and Chanda. Here the individual characters also stand out. It’s the story of Paro, Chanda and Dev, whereas the story of Devdas was just about Dev and the two women were moving the story forward."
Speaking about the cast Kashyap says, "The concept of the film came from Abhay. The film started with him so he was the natural choice for it. He is one actor who makes different choices, doesn’t want to be a star, he likes to play the character rather that the mainstream hero. He is one actor who is not bothered about the way he looks. The same goes for the girls in the film who are new, Mahi was decided much earlier as I wanted the film to be set in Punjab and Mahi has done Punjabi films so she was the natural choice. She has a strong personality and is a hardcore Punjabi girl and that is exactly how I wanted Paro to be. For Chanda’s character we auditioned for three months before we decided on Kalki."
According to Kashyap, the budget of the film minus marketing and publicity is approximately, Rs 60 million (Rs 6 crores). He says, "The amount of marketing and publicity this film has got I don’t think I have ever got before."
Dev D is slated to release on 6 February, 2009.
