Actor Mukul Dev, 54, who went on to build an over 25-year long career across mediums and languages, passed away on Friday night following a brief illness. For many in the Hindi film and television industry, it’s the loss of a kind friend who loved telling stories and bad jokes. To the world, filmmaker Hansal Mehta first collaborated with Dev in 2018 on his Rajkummar Rao-starrer, Omerta. Dev is credited as the co-writer. But their collaborations go back a long way, and their friendship even longer. “We became friends because we used to go to the same gym. And then we would hang out together all the time. We were literally inseparable. He stood by me during my darkest days,” shares Mehta.
Hansal Mehta and Deepshikha Nagpal
Dev made his film as well as television debut in 1996. The director shares he worked with the actor in both mediums. “We did television together, briefly. We also did a couple of films together, but none of them got released,” he says, before adding that through their intimate friendship, he discovered the storyteller in Dev. “He used to keep narrating story ideas. He was a very good narrator of stories. In fact, he brought me the story of Omertà. From the time he pitched, the film took almost 14 years to get made. Once I completed the film, I called him and said, ‘Mukul, film ban gayi hai’,” the filmmaker shares.
Dev offered an unwavering support as a friend, says actor Deepshikha Nagpal, who starred with him in Teri Bhabhi Hai Pagle (2018) and the Vikram Bhatt-directed 2019 series Maya. Reminiscing about their two decade friendship, she says, “He was an amazing human being. He was a pilot, came from a good background, and was very sophisticated in the way he spoke. He was a thorough gentleman, humble and an extremely kind human being. He was also a very good astrologer and would often read my chart! There was so much more to him than being an actor — he had a personality. He had an amazing face, so I would always take his pictures from different angles. When I told him that women were crushing on him, he would say, ‘Where are these women?’”
It wasn’t just the audience who gushed over Dev’s looks. His peers did it too. And he loved it, Mehta tells us. “He was the most handsome friend I’ve ever had — beautiful eyes, great bone structure, and what a face!” Mehta smiles.
And he had a good amount of vanity. He could not handle a little bit of paunch or anything showing. He would run on the treadmill. He was so conscious. He was a beast on the treadmill. He would run for an hour at a stretch. And he needed a mirror in front of him to be able to run because he would run and only look at himself,” Mehta laughs.
But he wasn’t the same in the last few years, the filmmaker shares. “The last few years, he just let go. I spoke to him few months ago and told him, `Why are you not looking after yourself?` He started laughing. He was always laughing. He also used to crack some of the worst jokes possible!”
But what remained constant was Dev brimming with story ideas. In fact, he would often tell Mehta that he wished to narrate them to him. The narration couldn`t happen, a regret the filmmaker harbours.
“He once sent me a voice note saying, `I want to tell you stories. I have many stories. You listen to them once. You`ll like them.` He had been telling me stories for a long time. We kept promising to meet. I would say, `Come and see me, come to my office. Let`s hang out.` But that day never happened. I feel when people are alive, we don`t meet enough. Then all you live with later is the regret that you did not meet enough,” says a sombre Mehta.
But Dev lives on in the stories and memories shared by his friends and colleagues. Like Mehta tells us about the time when Dev saw his writer’s credit in Omerta. “He was going through a low phase at the time. Seeing the credits, he thanked me profusely, saying, ’Tune mere credit de diya usme yaar. Thank you for doing that.` He just felt so validated and seen because of that one credit. He took so much pride in that,” the director shares. Or that moment when the two friends partied all night to celebrate their collaboration.
“I remember, we had a screening in Delhi. And then Mukul and I partied till the early hours of the morning. I will always remember the gleam in his eyes, and that mysterious smile. And every time you wanted to click a picture, the pout would happen,” Mehta smiles.
His known works
>> Dastak (1996)
>> Iski Topi Uske Sarr (1998)
>> Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena (2005)
>> Yamla Pagla Dewana (2011)
>> Son Of Sardar (2012)
>> R… Rajkumar (2013)
>> Shareek (2015)
>> Saak (2019)
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