Anurag Kashyap has openly stated that he "hated the book so much", and that animosity fuels the film's radical take. Kashyap intended to create a "contemporary updated version of today and how Devdas is applicable to the youth of today". Rather than a tragic hero, Kashyap presents Dev as an "entitled, impulsive, and often deeply unlikable" figure, whose self-destruction is reckless rather than noble. This makes the story painfully real, illustrating a generation's struggle with love and loss in the age of instant communication.