You don't really expect an actor — or a member of Parliament — to call back to confirm a date. And you certainly don't count on a top actor — who is also an MP — to do so. So it comes as a bit of a surprise when Dev rings back. But then, he seems to be a man of his word. If he says, 'I'll call you back,' he does. And if he says, 'I'll reconfirm,' he does.
Tollywood's much-touted superstar and, at 32, one of the younger Lok Sabha MPs, Dev is on a roll. He stars in Buno Haansh, based on a novel by Samaresh Majumdar, where he plays a simple man lured by the scent of big bucks. Chander Pahar, where he stars as a young man seeking adventure in the jungles of Africa, is a big hit. And Dev — aka Deepak Adhikari — is already immersed in his next film.
He is just back from Mumbai and is now off to Ladakh to shoot a sequence for Yoddha, a Shree Venkatesh Films production, slated for release during the Pujas. Evidently at home in the Shree Venkatesh Films' studio, he leads me professionally into a room, asks for some tea, shuts the door firmly and is all focused on the one-on-one: no calls, no interruptions, no multitasking.
The man, clearly, knows how to connect — he makes it a point, for instance, to address me emphatically by my first name. 'I believe in being good and doing good,' he intones. 'In my eight years in Tollywood, I have never harmed anyone to reach this point. It is just that God has been kind to me.'
Not surprisingly, Tollywood is all praise for the actor. 'He is rooted and hard-working,' says the director of Buno Haansh, Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury. 'We had to shoot in all kinds of places — toilets in Bangladesh, Mumbai's Matunga bridge where he had to squat, roll and lie down. Dev had no hang ups about the filth, food or anything else.'
He is known to be focused — and that's perhaps why he was hesitant when he received a call from Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee's office 12 hours before his candidature was announced for the 2014 parliamentary elections. 'I wasn't ready for it. But then Didi convinced me: 'If the young generation shuns politics and doesn't do its bit for society, how can we make progress?' she had said. I realised Didi had a point. And now that I am in, I will not run away,' he says.
The beginning wasn't very auspicious. He kicked up a furore during the polls when, asked if he was 'enjoying' the electoral campaign, he famously said: 'Enjoy...! It's just like being raped, yaar! You can shout or you can enjoy.' The comment was condemned by his political foes — and left even some in his party, the Trinamul Congress, red-faced. Later he was forced to apologise in a tweet: 'I'm new in politics. My heart is clean. No offence meant 2 any1...'
But these days, he has started sounding like a seasoned politician. His philosophy is simple, almost utopian: 'Instead of pointing fingers at one another, political parties should come together to uplift people.' Dev stresses that politics isn't as much about money or power as it is about 'motivating people to be good and do good'. Money, he adds, is not a driving force for him. 'If it were, I wouldn't have done Chander Pahar for free. Power for me is people's love and I have that already,' he says.
Despite his hectic schedule, the actor-MP says he visits his constituency twice a month, meets party workers and listens to suggestions. 'I am not equipped to take a call on every issue.' But promises, he adds, aren't his style. 'Promises are meant to be broken. Or else, the word wouldn't have existed. I'd like my work to speak for itself, but then I am not a magician,' he underlines.
His constituency, Ghatal, used to be a Left bastion — till Dev defeated Santosh Rana of the Communist Party of India by 2,60,891 votes. Before the elections, he says he met Rana and had tea and rabri with him and his wife, who is a big fan of Dev's. As a diplomatic exercise, that wasn't a mean feat. Dev talked about working together with Rana, but they haven't met since the elections.
Ghatal, he contends, needs bridges, hospitals and good roads. 'Unemployment is another issue. I can't do much about that, but I can create social awareness among the young. We plan to hold debates and a gala sports event involving schools where students will participate in kite flying competitions, play kabaddi and gilli danda. We will also award scholarships to the most meritorious students. If we start taking these small steps, at least it would go some way in initiating a change.'
He speaks haltingly — but focuses on what he's saying, often seemingly hunting for the right words. When I point out that all that he says is a far cry from his reel image of a merry loafer, he replies that his rangbaaz image is his oxygen. 'Rather than an art-house film, it's a commercial film that's my oxygen. I love entertaining people, giving them a stress buster, making them happy at the end of the day.'
And this, he argues, is not easy. 'I feel it is far more difficult to play to the gallery than enact a character from a novel or even from real life — like say Milkha Singh. In a commercial film, the onus is on the actor to make the character breathe. Being a credible, charismatic and convincing hero, beating up the baddies, getting the masses to dance to your tune, keeping them hooked is a Herculean task. As a superstar you have to constantly pay attention to what you wear, how you do your hair, how you walk and so on. But for both Amal, the underdog in Buno Haansh, or the adventurous Shankar in Chander Pahar, one can visualise the characters etched by the authors, so they are easy to essay.'
He is, however, immensely proud that Chander Pahar ran in multiplexes for more than 100 days at prime time slots with Aamir Khan's Dhoom 3 for competition. 'I feel that is a significant contribution, and attributes to Bengali films its well-deserved status. Also, the fact that we succeeded in drawing the intellectual class of people that usually stays away from my films is quite an achievement.'
Dev, some hold, stands out in Tollywood because he is not like the average Bengali — mostly nerdy or often intense — hero. He is more like a Bollywood star — conventionally good-looking, a good dancer and a fighter (he trained under fight choreographer Aejaz Gulab). Known to be a fitness freak, Dev hits the gym in his house at midnight after a busy day and works out for a couple of hours or so. 'By 3am, I am off to sleep and wake up depending on my schedule for the day.'
It was in 2006 that he christened himself 'Dev' for the film world. 'For some reason, I loved the name and used to think that if I ever had a son, I'd call him Dev,' he recalls with a smile. That was the year that he set foot in Calcutta for the very first time to debut in Agnishapath, an eminently forgettable film that bombed at the box office. Prior to that it was always a train journey from Mumbai — where his father ran a catering business for Hindi film production units — to Kharagpur and from there on to Midnapore, his ancestral home.
He spent his formative years in Chandrakona at his maternal uncle's home while his father was busy setting up his catering business in Mumbai. Later, he went to Mumbai to live with his parents and sister, and completed his graduation in computer science. He now flits between Mumbai and Calcutta.
Cinema happened almost by chance. Cameraman Babul Rai was on a visit to Mumbai, and when he heard Dev was interested in acting, he told him to try his luck in Tollywood. The action-romance Challenge, directed by Raj Chakraborty, was his first hit. Then came Shedin Dekha Hoyechilo. But it was Paglu, a huge hit, and Khokababu, the longest running movie of 2012, which put him in the top league.
Next on the reel horizon is Aparna Sen's Romeo and Juliet. But in real life, he is — by his own admission — more of a Mama's boy than a rakish Casanova. Not in a hurry to tie the knot himself, he sponsored his Man Friday's wedding recently.
He would like to do a Hindi film, but hasn't got any meaty roles so far. But Dev has all the time. And then, of course, there is a slot for another Dev in Bollywood.
