I don’t want to repeat myself, says Dev

Actor Ranveer Singh came up with a video, Chupa Rustom, where he dressed as a naval officer and was seen gyrating to the number ‘Zeher Hai Ke Pyaar Hai’. That was how Ranveer promoted Akshay Kumar’s Rustom. Recently Prabhu Deva, Hrithik Roshan and Ekta Kapoor accepted the Beat Pe Booty challenge and shook their booties to promote The Flying Jatt. It goes without saying that Bollywood stars are bonding like never before. The actors are going all out to promote each other’s films and are nominating their friends from the industry by challenging them on social media. That certainly has also taken the social media by storm. And now Tollywood stars are following suit.

Actor Dev recently posed a challenge for his fans with the hashtag #DhitangDhitangChallenge. The audience started grooving to the tunes of the song, Dhitang Dhitang (from the film Love Express), sung by Armaan Malik, the day it released. The actor’s social media account since then has been flooded with videos of his fans trying to emulate his dance moves from the song. “It’s become viral and every day I am receiving hundreds of videos,” says the actor.

Read: I don’t want to be a one-week wonder, says Bengali star Dev

The actor-turned-MP, who also has a number of political commitments, however, makes sure that he replies to his fans on Twitter. “They wait patiently to get reply from us (actors). I don’t know how they find out when I am online on Twitter. But the moment I get online, they start bombarding me with questions. Their behaviour and humble attitude compels me to reply to their questions,” he smiles.

The last few years haven’t been good for hardcore commercial films as the potboilers, which are considered the backbone of the industry, have failed to set the cash registers ringing at the box office. Dev firmly believes that it’s high time the formula of commercial films change. “There’s no point blaming the audience. Did we produce good content in the last few years? The content needs to be good,” he says.

However, the actor was appreciated for his performance in his last Durga Puja release Shudhu Tomari Jonyo. Dev says that it’s important to keep the audience engaged. “They should be able to relate to the characters. I am playing a boy next door in my new film (directed by Rajib). The scenes are not over-the-top and the audience will easily be able to relate to it,” he says.

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Dev also says that he is ready to wait for months for the right role instead of repeating himself. “I am ready to wait for three-four months for the right role,” he says.

The actor was recently in news for his maiden speech in Lok Sabha, which was mostly in Bengali. The MP from Ghatal spoke on the need for implementation of the ‘Ghatal Master Plan’ to prevent flood in the region. The speech was appreciated by his fans, but he also drew criticisms. Dev says it doesn’t matter what others say. “I knew my first speech in Lok Sabha will be in Bengali. I wanted to speak on piracy too, but I will speak on it next time. The MPs from south speak in their mother tongue, so why should we be ashamed of speaking in Bengali,” he signs off.

Watch the trailer of Love Express: