Devdas is one of the phenomenal characters in the history of Indian cinema that influenced many filmmakers across the nation. It’s basically a novel written by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, which was first made into a film in the year 1927 directed by Naresh Mitra, starring Phani Sarma asDevdas, Tarakbala as Paro. It was later filmed in 6 different languages for 12 times! It was made twice in Telugu with Akkineni Nageswara Rao and Krishna playing the title roles.

In Tollywood, it was Akkineni Nageswara Rao who portrayed the character of Devadasu for the first time. He set his own standard with the film that hit the screens in 1953. The movie became a huge hit, which is considered as an eternal classic of Telugu film industry till date. ANR’s performance in the movie was so natural that famous Hindi actor Dilip Kumar (who played Devdas in Hindi) said, "There is only one Devadas, and that is Nageswara Rao.” And we can’t agree more!

Devadasu was remade 21 years later with Super Star Krishna in the lead role. Though the movie was well made it failed to gain audience’s appreciation. They were simply not convinced to see Super Star in the role of Devdas as they could only imagine ANR in the role.

Devdas through the ages: 12 films that adapted the novel Devdas.

1) Devdas (1927) - First Devdas

2) Devdas (1935) – Bengali film

3) Devdas (1936) – Hindi

4) Devdas (1937) – Assamese

5) Devdas (1953) -Tamil and Telugu (ANR’s Devadasu)

6) Devdas (1955)- Hindi (Dilip Kumar’s Devdas)

7) Devdas (1974)- Telugu (Krishna’s Devadasu)

8) Devdas (1979)- Bengali

9) Devdas (1989) - Malyalam

10) Devdas (2002) - Bengali

11)Devdas (2002) - Hindi ( Shah Rukh Khan’s Devdas)

12) Dev D (2009) - Anurag Kashyap’s modern take on Devdas