Devdas is a loser and India has a tradition in self-pity. Dev.D's director Anurag Kashyap pulls no punches, even with his broken marriage and his newfound loveu00a0

Dev.D actor Abhay Deol has said he didn't much care for Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's story. What do you feel about Devdas?
I don't like it either.

Why are you making a film on a story you don't like?
Because it's applicable. Devdas has gone beyond being a book or a film. It's become an adjective. Devdas is a word in normal lingo. It gives you so much to explore. The idea of doing a film on self-destruction has always been fascinating. It's kind of a romantic thing. There are so many things that I wanted to do with the story. When Abhay told me the concept, the first thing that occurred to me was Paharganj. When I was in college, I used to hang around Paharganj in Delhi to score some dope.
We wanted to watch firangs wearing short skirts we were 16, 17 years old. The area always fascinated me you know those neon-lit streets. When I wrote Allwyn Kalicharan, it was set in Paharganj. That never got made. When this idea came, I knew where I wanted to set it.
There were lots of stories that I wanted to make into film they were real-life incidents about young people. Stories of youth that didn't find direction. I put all of them on parallel to Devdas and then wrote my script. Devdas is the medium to tell those stories.
A story like Devdas tends to get dark and I was very self-conscious about being so dark, specially post a box office disaster (No Smoking). I decided to end it on a positive note. I don't want to spell out the message I just leave it for you to figure out. With No Smoking, I was consciously trying not to be accessible. I expected the audience to get it. But I didn't do it well.