Meet Dev, the Detective

Manpriya Singh 

If Netflix or Amazon have lately taken you away from ticket-windows or soap operas, it’s understandable. Relatable too.  “They make such good TV shows the world over that I at least drifted away from films both as an actor and as a viewer,” says actor Ashish Chowdhry, who was in fact viewing Sherlock Holmes and The Mentalist when he was offered the titular role of a detective, Dev Burman, soon to be aired on Colors. 

“We have such good TV shows and I have been catching up on Spanish shows, Pakistani and of course, many International series that I wondered when will we have great content on Indian television,” questions the actor who promises edge-of-the-seat ‘who dunnit’ sort of intrigue with his latest show.  

Yet another Byomkesh 

or Sherlock? 

Back to Dev Burman. Well, how different is he from the iconic ones; namely Sherlock Holmes, Byomkesh Bakshy or Adrian Monk? “I’d say it’s his past life, the incidents that have been happened in his personal life and which have contributed to making him a recluse.” He adds, “I was given this brief that everybody in the show hates him and he hates everybody. But at the same time, audience should find him adorable. He is eccentric and emotional, has lost his wife and people suspect him to have killed his wife, so he is also a wanted criminal.” Inspired by true life events, the fictionalized investigative thriller comes in 26-episode finite series.  

Sumona Chakravrti

From Kapil to Dev  

Joining him for promotions in the city are his reel life wife and love interest, played by Puja Banerjee and Sumona Chakravarti, respectively. 

“Television is everywhere. Everybody has Internet and even our serials are aired in France and watched by French people,” Sumona mirrors the latest entertainment trends where web-series and TV series across the world figure prominently in the list. 

A break from Bollywood 

Last checked, Ashish Chowdhry faired reasonably well with the film Double Dhamaal. The infamous and unfortunate 26/11 happened where he was affected beyond words. “I stayed away from films for 4 years for personal reasons.” 

Well, for anyone, who has followed the actor’s life, will know the personal reasons involve his losing his sister and brother-in-law, a financial forgery running into multiple crores inflicted on the family. He adds, “Initially the films also that were offered were either multi-starrers or not content driven scripts or characters.” It was only the wait for the right role.  

After work, food@Chandigarh 

Meanwhile the entire cast is happy to be in City Beautiful. “We got excited when we learnt about our Chandigarh visit. Looking forward to food here and especially eating at some nice and popular dhaba.” Well, the city got many of those. 

Starts August 5 every Saturday and Sunday at 10pm on Colors. 

manpriya@tribunemail.com