Shah Rukh as Devdas have left readers hankering for the original.

Jalpaiguri, Dec. 20: Only one question haunted film pundits before Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Devdas was launched. Will the Information Age audience connect with a pre-Independence loser?

The Rs 50-crore epic eye-candy, a reinterpretation of a Bengali classic, paid off and it did something more in the process. It tapped the audience’s interest for Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s novel, so much so that it became the bestseller at the Jalpaiguri book fair.

From the teenaged to the grey-haired, everyone wanted a piece of the 1917 classic, which told the story of a narcissistic, drunken lover who pined to death for his beloved Paro, married to an elder man, the beautiful courtesan Chandramukhi with a heart of gold and the debauch Chunni Lal, who introduces Devdas to his drink and the brothel.

“Devdas is so far the highest selling book at the fair. One good thing Bhansali’s film has done is regenerate an interest in the classic, which was hitherto unknown to most teenagers. You could see so many youngsters hunting for the book. There has been, in general, a renewed interest in the old classics. Most seemed to have forgotten Harry Potter.”

“Book lovers are lapping up Devdas. The eternal theme of the lover who fights the society to get his beloved has got everyone hooked. They want to get a feel of the original Paro and Devdas after watching Bhansali’s recreation,” said Gautam Guha Roy, a member of the fair committee.

The image of a tempestuous lover who follows a path of self-destruction has struck a chord with the school children as well.

“I have been scouting for the book. After watching the film I wanted to read more about the love triangle. I wanted to read Chattopadhyay’s version since nothing can replace the original,” said Baishali Ghosh, a school student. Her friends nodded, expressing the same view.

For the generation that belonged to the age in which the classic was written, it was a fond and nostalgic reading.

“There was so much talk about how Bhansali had distorted the original novel. I watched the movie and found some discrepancies. So I had to check with the latest edition,” said 45-year-old Ramen Basu.

For some like Mausam Ghosh, a B.Ed. student and an ardent Shah Rukh fan, the reading of the novel is a necessity.

“I want to know about the real Devdas as Bhansali has introduced new elements to his story,” said Mausam.

Children’s novels have also been doing brisk business. “The works of Upendra Kishore Roy Chowdhury, Sukumar Roy and Satyajit Ray are giving stiff competition to recent bestsellers,” said Guha Roy. The fair also saw a considerable demand for books from Bangladesh and Tripura. Another genre which has wiggled up the most-wanted list is the Little Magazine, said organisers, who are quite happy about the near-full attendance at the book fair, which ends on Sunday.