'Devdas' was journey of Dev to Das, 'Daasdev' the reverse: Sudhir Mishra

Director Sudhir Mishra says that his upcoming film "Daasdev" follows a contrary path to the plot of the classic novel "Devdas", as the character in his film instead of "going from Dev to Das, goes from Das to Dev".

"I am making 'Daasdev'; I've played around 'Devdas' in it. If in the story of 'Devdas', you see the journey of Dev becoming a 'das' (slave/servant), then this is the journey from Das to Dev. My Devdas is not that much of a loser; he doesn't get stuck in his difficulties but rather evolves out of it," Mishra said at the event to promote Bihar as a potential destination for film shoots.

"Daasdev" stars Richa Chaddha, Aditi Rao Hydari and Rahul Bhat, of "Ugly" fame, in lead roles.

Mishra looks likely to deviate from the plot of the classic novel written by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay and the numerous films made on it. The protagonist Devdas, in the novel and films is from a wealthy family and educated abroad, but witnesses downfall in his life and eventually experiences death due to the stress caused by heartbreak in love and excessive consumption of alcohol.

The "Hazaaron Khwaishien Aisi" director also stated that the movie has filmmaker Anurag Kashyap in a small role. Incidentally, Anurag had also made a contemporary version of "Devdas" - "Dev.D", which also didn't exactly stay true to the plot of the novel.

So far, the iconic character has been played by legendary Dilip Kumar in Bimal Roy's "Devdas" and superstar Shah Rukh Khan in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's "Devdas".

Mishra's last directorial work was "Inkaar" in 2013. The movie starred Arjun Rampal and Chitrangada Singh.