Just A Minute With: Abhay Deol on "Dev D"

By Shilpa Jamkhandikar

MUMBAI (Reuters) - He is the anti-Deol. No bulging muscles, no loud Punjabi dialogues. Abhay Deol has veered away from the path cousins Sunny and Bobby had set out on, choosing instead to act in a different, more experimental kind of cinema.

The 32-year-old actor’s latest film is yet another adaptation of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s eponymous novel Devdas and opens in Indian cinemas next month.

Deol spoke to Reuters about modernising Devdas with “Dev D” and why he has turned producer.

Q: In your new film "Dev D", are you somewhat distorting one of India’s most well known tragic heroes?

A: “Why do you assume that it’s going to distort? And I kind of came up with the idea myself, so I had to go out there and find someone who would produce which I don’t have the ability to, at least not right then. I wanted to approach (director) Anurag (Kashyap) with it.”

“And in terms of distorting the character, it’s not at all distorted. The change is only superficial in terms of the setting, the cars, the clothes and all that. But inside of it it’s the same story. My interpretation of this character was that he is trying to provoke you, and he is also of course -- he is dealing in the area of abuse.”

“It actually goes into substance abuse, which comes from the personality that Devdas has. You can see this even in the way that he deals with Paro, he is more obsessed with her than he is in love with her.”