Dev D’s Success
Before you start reading this post I must declare that this post is not a critique of DevD. Its my thoughts about its success.
I watched Dev D quite late compared to most people here at PFC. So by the time I walked inside the theater, the film was already declared a hit, after a very hard battle over the weekend. It was also a very interesting weekend, as news from Box Offices around the country kept coming the status kept flip-flopping between Flop & Hit. I felt it was the detractors who also had a vested interest in DevD’s failure. Finally Dev D emerged victorious after a week.
I was 20 minutes late(Thanks to Kingfisher @ Ambala Dhaba). Completely missed the childhood part. It took us a good 10-15 minutes to get used to what we were watching. But throughout the film, I kept thinking “How the hell is this movie a Hit in India?” I was still heartbroken from the failure of LUCK BY CHANCE. I kept thinking how does one connect to the Indian Audience?
Its almost like how after elections all the Exit Poll guys sit around NDTV & wonder “what the fuck just happened in Karnataka”. If a simple linear film like Luck By Chance which is flawless in its execution could not connect with the junta, how can this trippy-noir-new wavy film with a french soul connect with India?
Initially I was jumping with joy. That this film signals the maturity of Indian audience & blah blah blah… But as I kept thinking more about these two films, my optimism in the audience disappeared. There were a few things in Dev D that made the film a hit -
1) Music – Amit Trivedi is the biggest star of the film. Esp Emotional Atyachar connected with the youth in a big way.
2) Sex – There was a refreshing amount of sex in the film. Characters talked about sex all the time. This probably helped with people who are not exposed to world cinema. The infamous MMS Scandal also must have fueled a lot of curiosity.
3) Style – The look of the film was Fantastic. And it was a combo of Editing , Photography & Production Design. (I love how we don’t see the G of GRAND Hotel).
I feel if any of these elements were missing from the film the chances of the film working at the box office would have been very low.
Just the music & Anurag’s energetic direction without all that sex talk.
All that great music & Sex but not that cool looking film.
All that style & great music but without the sex talk.
And compared to Dev D Luck By Chance might seem grand but it had so much subtlety which is hard to notice because of its mega canvass. So as much as I would like to rejoice at the success of Dev D as, for now I would look at things in a pragmatic way.
Tags: Anurag Kashyap, Bollywood, Dev.D, Luck By Chance, mainak
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
I asked myself the same question – how could it be a hit – each and every time I watched it. I knew I got it and that everyone I know would get it and love it, but ultimately, a film is make a hit by the masses, who aren’t always the best connoisseurs…
You hit the nail on the head with those three points. And I share your sadness at the fate of Luck By Chance. Though it was well liked here in the US…
Laktha hai, ki kingfisher ke vaje se aab abhi bhi booz mein hai, clear hone ke bath aur ek baar dhekiye, aur ek bath never compare films boss! only one point i agree with u is about amit trivedi, yes he has a strong hand in the film, but excuse me, it is the director who chooses what he wants for his film, so sorry about ur opinion.
Different films are hit for different reasons. Why was Tare Zameen Par a hit. some will say sentimentality. Some will say Amir. And they would be partly right. The fact is that it CONNECTS. While all the three factors are definite contributors, think again. Before the film became a hit who ever thought Amit Trivedy’s music would connect. How many music barons would have thought of Emotional Atyachar would be a hit song. And as for SEX, why wasn’t Dil Kabaddi a hit then? No things are never that simple. Dev D has style, It has a narrative flow, it has characters one cares for, it has humour, it has a contemporary feel…all these things combine to make it a hit. It is always Carbon, Hydrogen combining in a particular fashion, under a particular set of circumstances that give rise to life. Not easy to replicate by formula.
And incidentally, OLLY was a success. It was liked. It would have been bigger success if it was not released in the Terror attack week.
I have two ideas about why Dev.D succeeded in the theaters:
1) the positive buzz around Abhay Deol, and
2) the promise of something naughty which was delivered upon pretty much exactly as advertised, without going too far. If you notice, much depravity was alluded to, but not much was shown.
Also, it certainly helps to have awesome music, art direction, cinematography, writing, acting, etc. etc., even though we know that doesn’t guarantee mass appeal.
Its absolutely true…
The first time i saw this movie , it was filled with all the inebriated fools in a night show. I remember the dialogs and reactions. Though the sex is predominant in most of the first half’s dialogs, the punch line is what i wait for. But I never heard any (Though i got them the next time I saw the movie), these fools kept hooting at even a slightest mention of or a connotation of sex.
Also I heard quite a few of them shouting ‘ab chalo, movie khatam’ after the end of emotional attyachar. But sadly they never went.
DELETED SCENE
Paro: Apne kapde utaro
DevD: Kyon?
Paro: Main tumhare kapde dhona chaahti hoon
“I love how we don’t see the G of GRAND Hotel”
ahhh and i thought i was the only one who noticed it…it was wicked!
BTW…a film like Bombay Boys doesnt succeed..people say ahead of its time..i never understand, what one means by ahead of its time..does the audience need to be nurtured with care, meaning some such movies be made again and again for the audience to realise its real worth?
I think the marketing for this movie was spot on..that brought the initial crowd in..and later, the movie worked cause of its makers and people involved in the movie..
I remember this one quote by Raj kapoor about Satyam Shivam Sundaram..he said somethign like
“Let people come in expecting to see Zeenat’s tits, but they will walkout taking much more than just tits”
Something of this happened with Dev.D
@OM: Apparently, we all noticed that. And thought no one else did. :P Reminds me that analogy of masturbation… ;)
i quite agree myself with mainak’s thoughts. though the film is brilliant for what we see, i don’t think it became a hit for the same reasons. it was more the timing, the issues it dealt with, and the toungue in cheek dialogues.
and then once a thing starts rolling in india as ‘kewl’, the momentum just carries it through across the hit line – that’s what happened i think – once it’d been seen by enough people and touted as the coolest new thing in art here for one of those 3 or more reasons above, it was like a fever – every teenager, wannabe was talking about it, hence everyone was trying to watch it. i still know so many people who’d never see it or like it if it wasn’t so cool, so many are still wanting to catch it, they’ve heard it’s too cool.
at the end of the day i’m glad. for whatever reasons it clicked, i’m glad it did – at least it now allows anurag and the new ilk of directors to go ahead and make some more great cinema. i still think gulaal will be anurag’s real coming of age film.
i find it very weird, but as much as i love dev d (i saw it twice in delhi – very late shows in the middle of 3 weeks of madness of my younger brother’s wedding at home – impossible to spare a minute – i know how i managed those 2 late shows since 1. i couldn’t wait, 2. i feared it’d be out of theaters by the time i get back to bangalore) – i still think luck by chance is a more brilliant film. i was blown by the script, the honesty and the execution – totally stumped me.
@Navneet..dont be sorry…i feel and am sure even Anurag feels that Luck By Chance had a better script that Dev.D
What happened with Dev.D was that it was a far more cheaply made film than others.. it cost 5.5 compared t0 billu’s 35, Delhi-6’s 40, and LBC’s 28…
in the end it is about evaluating your own movies worth and working backwards..
OM – I’m not sorry at all. It was Luck’s bad luck after all. Anurag made amazing films for many years, but wasn’t ‘lucky’ enough – why should I blame anyone for Zoya Akhtar not striking it big the first time itself even if she did a great film. My post just stressed the fact that it was a great film.
Also, moinky missed somethig out – DevD had big time and very intelligent marketing aimed at the right target audience riding on it – which made all the difference. I think UTV deserves as big a pat as do anurag, the crew and the actors – they did a fantastic job of promoting the film right this time – it was along with the music, the biggest factor building up the right hype – for the crew to deliver the content to the right audience.
anurag – u’r kidding us right? it certainly didn’t look like 5.5. if true, WOW. i had a gut it’s around 10, considering OLLO was 8+.
How much ever i i am soo biased towards Dev.D and now that we know it was a suceess..my heart bleeds to Luck By Chnace..i soo wanted it to be a hit..i loved the film so much…for me persoanlly it was the best film of the year! so far
it was 5.5..+ marketing et al=7.5
LBC on the other hand is my favourite film too..
@ anurag – working backwards from the film’s eventual value as a property is simple business economics, then fitting in the cast, crew, locations, props, technique and schedules to match the probable eventual cost that shall provide the much needed profit..I dunno why most film makers / producers ignore this!
@ your marketing was done at 2 cr? I thought it would be more by at least a crore??
that’s why it was ‘intelligent” marketing. ;)
anurag – kudos – it sure looks more expensive than 5.5 cr – that’s quite an art alright.
@Utkal@3
The reason Dil Kabbadi was not a hit was because it had some really over the top acting by Irfan Khan. That too in english. Meaning it was badly directed. Irfan can act badly only if the director screws up.
It did have sex.And it had one of the best background music in recent years. Which everyone missed. I was very very impressed by Rahet Fateh Ali Khans music in the film. I hope other director notices his work. It was completely missed even here at PFC.
I’m glad that we all agree Luck By Chance is the best film of 2009. And I’m betting that it will still be the best film of 2009 in December. That kind of film comes onces in a blue moon in India.
Love & Power to ZOYA from Las Vegas!
@mainak -So much for dil Kabbadi man??? It was so Husband and wives… I feel if some one is talented, he/she has to come up with originals … remaking is fine but not as a debut.. cant judge a person’s talent on a remake ..
“I was 20 minutes late(Thanks to Kingfisher @ Ambala Dhaba). Completely missed the childhood part.”
Wait, Ambala Dhaba? With the waterfall and strange flooring and the khatiya that I damn near fell through once? If you get your Hindi film fix at Naz Artesia, can I come with you? :D I have to beg and bribe (in dosa payments) to get my friends and family to go watch movies there. Last weekend I protested and ditched my friends to watch Dev D.
By myself.
For the 11pm showing on a Saturday night.
Yes, it was humiliating.
I became that creepy loner in the back of the dark movie theatre. But what could I do? This is the same theatre that wouldn’t play Oye Lucky but EXCLUSIVELY played RNBDJ all day, every day for a whole frickin’ week! I was afraid they’d pull the plug on Dev D by the time someone agreed to go with me. And then I’d have to wait for the DVD, which would invariably be a jacked-up, pirated version rented from the local Punjabi grocer despite my willingness to pay more for legit quality DVDs.
Here’s a not-so-secret secret: young American desis love MIA and Harold and Kumar-type movies because images of us as deviants affirm the idea that we’re deeper and edgier than our brown Dilbert stereotype indicates. You could easily pitch a film like Dev D to the yuppie/university crowd because it is irresistibly edgy and stylish. I pretty much went to watch Abhay Deol’s skinny hipster frame get wasted to two hours of ass-kickingly good music.
So in conclusion: 1) I need reliable Hindi cinema-watching friends, and 2) with the right kind of promotion, independent films like Dev D can attract huge yuppie crowds as no Yash Raj film ever could.
ok, i stay in a cave, dil kabbadi flopped??!
i gotta see it just this last weekend, and i couldn’t believe how amazing it was. yes, i was having a bad fight with my wife, but it couldn’t have affected my judgement so much!
i haven’t seen husbands n wives, and even if this was a remake, it was a damn fine one – i thought the direction was superb and so was the acting. irfan khan was over the top but in a brilliant way – i couldn’t stop laughing LOUD during all his scenes (much to the major annoyance of my cheezed off wife) – he was just too good! n so was the film. in any other film those documentary type one on one question answer narration scenes would have got to me, but these were really well done.
NO Dil Kabaddi flopped and De D was a hit, because people liked it more, more people thought it was cool, and spread the word around.
Luck By Chance flopped because people found it unexciting. Period. It was well-directed film, but in a plodding, academic kind if way. The kind of films that get good reviews but does not work for a paying audience ( eg Main Madhuri Dioxit Chahta Hoon.?)
Some people think that only they are smart and can appreciate a good film. If audience likes Dev D and it is a hit, it must be for other reasons than the quality of the film. Come on, give me a break! Find other means of ego satisfaction.
A big reason for the success of Dev D is the music.That was one of the reason Luck By Chance flopped.
Are we not short-selling the effort that went behind Dev D by crediting its success only to Sexual/hep content. For me the major portion of the credit should go to the writers. They plugged every loophole in the original story. Agreed that the original story was set in a different era with its sets of value. But, didn’t the intensity of the main character feel fake in the original. If he’d showed the courage in leaving the house before Paro’s marriage they’d have lived together happily ever after, instead he wastes his life in booze & whorehouse after she is married. He is really a spineless creature who couldn’t bear the stigma of eloping with a low caste girl. But, it was never pronounced publicly. In the new version it is clearly mentioned. Making Paro’s virginity the is a real masterstroke.
@Gattu,
“But, didn’t the intensity of the main character feel fake in the original.”…….
You mean in the book or Bimol Roy’s cinematic adaptation?
“They plugged every loophole in the original story”
You mean to say , this new take has no loop hole in the story?
Sharat Chandra was 19 years old boy when he wrote Devdas according to sensibilities of literature prevailed in that era especially in Bengal.
If people are still mesmerised by the plot he crerated then you have to give proper credit to the man and his creation.
You can not impose your defintions on Devdas that why he could not get courage on the night paro had visited him. It can not happen that its not possible in entire history of mankind that one person behaved like that. When created, Devdas was not prototype, later people tried to define him.
New take in new era can not drag down old take set in old era. Such Comparisons are not possible.
You can’t imagine how depressed me and my buddies back home are by the failure of LBC. I know of two people personally who have shelved plans of making a film for now and are gonna stick to commercials. While I loved OLLO I can understand why people didn’t get it coz it’s so experience specific but the failure of LBC just baffles me.
@RK, happy that we both are meeting on the same platform after a long while.:-) I never tried to compare the two. I just said the old one feels fake. When we see old films our sensibilities do not time-travel into that era.
@Gattu,
and then became bit sad to read present thought process :( .
I was happy to see you active after a long time
Leave alone old for a moment as you are living atleast 54 years after Bimal Roys devdas was made and released, what matters most is, do you find everything just perfect in new story/film or story of the film because you are cursing old being fake while new is perfect. Do you think, that there is not anything in the story/film which may look fake as per the sensibilities of present time and above all as per the parameters set in the film for the story and its characters?
If you find these then only you may try to look fakeness in old one. If you are keeping a pace with present time then how story fares on your understanding?
(*You- an address in general way for any person and not you, the Gattu).
Its always a mind set of a particular person whether he is receptive or not towards a particular story.
We can not say that Devdas like characters dont exist in the society now. I have met and seen them destroying their lives because they could not handle with their wrong decisions taken at crucial time as far as love life is concerned.
Everything is possible. India exists at several levels at same time. we have to be conscious about this practical truth about this country.
Analysis paralysis!
To be honest i don’t think anyone has mastered the art(capable?) of finding what made a particular movie a success or a failure. The same being a factor of many parameters often complex and linked to each other. As most of you are aware, the thing about art in any form is the ability to connect with the audience/viewer and what works for one doesn’t for another. For this reason critics albeit competent often have diverse opinion about the same subject.
If something is a success it should be left at that and enjoyed! As someone has pointed out here, its not a formula that can be broken down and replicated(unless you are Karan Johar ;-)).
So go on and offer your analysis but be aware that you could be spot on or way off the mark with the ‘reality’ either in between or even beyond these extremes.
@Gattu
“Are we not short-selling the effort that went behind Dev D by crediting its success only to Sexual/hep content.”
Do you think only great writing can guarantee success? Did I say that the writing wasn’t good enough? I think you missed my point. Esp since I make many references to the most perfectly written film of 2009 – LBC. All i’m saying is that all these factors worked in tandem to make the film work. I was talking only about the commercial success, not about the quality of writing, music or anything else.
Hi All;
Though i must say that Dev.D is made beautifully and marketed briliantly, but i would say the movie hit the bulls eye becoz,yhe concept and execution by Anurag was done fantastically.He just didnt fell in love to remake “Devdas”. Dev. D was not the remake of Devdas. What Anurag did was he just take the theme of Paro, Chadramukhi and Devdas and presented a counter view of every perception created by old makers of Devdas.He just turned the table and presented Devdas in his true self, which every old makers failed to do. He placed Devdas,from what his place to be.He established that Devdas was not a Tragic hero(From Bimal Roy to SLB tried to do,and from Dilip kumar to SRK acted)but an egoistic,foolish drunker who just didnt know what is right for him.it is refreshingly fresh point of view.
Apart from that fresh& conteporary look and youthfull music by Amit also helped the movie to click.Finally it was a powerfull Content and brilliant marketing by UTV that worked well in the success of the movie.