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Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s 2002 film Devdas, starring Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, and Madhuri Dixit, is considered an all-time classic in Indian cinema. However, Pakistani actress Dananeer Mobeen feels otherwise. In one of her recent interviews, the Mera Lyari actress called the SRK starrer overrated and went on to ask why people have been going gaga over the film all these years. Dananeer’s comments soon went viral on social media, inviting some serious backlash.
24-year-old Dananeer Mobeen is an influencer-turned-actress. In 2021, Dananeer went viral on social media for her catchphrase ‘Pawrty hori hai’. That same year, Dananeer got her break on television with a show called Sinf-e-Aahan that aired on ARY Digital. However, Dananeer’s breakthrough performance came in 2023 with the show Muhabbat Gumshuda Meri. Last year, Dananeer’s show Meem Se Mohabbat also gained immense popularity. In 2026, Dananeer is seen in the show Hurmat. She also made her film debut with Mera Lyari, where she plays the role of Afsana Baloch. As per reports, Dananeer’s debut film, which was supposed to be an answer to India’s Dhurandhar, went on to tank at the box office.
What did Dananeer Mobeen say about Devdas?
In her recent interview with Mashion, Dananeer was answering some fun trivia questions. When she was asked to name a classic film she finds overrated, the actress went on to name Devdas. “What is the story? There’s an alcoholic, there’s a woman who has no self-respect, there’s a dad who *beep*, and there’s another woman who is forced upon the man. There is a man who is forced upon this other woman… what is happening, and why is it a classic? Why is everyone going gaga? I get the sets, the grandeur, outfits, but the story? Why are we glamorising alcoholism?”
Someone should remind Dananeer, Devdas does not glorify alcoholism. His downfall is driven by ego and addiction, and he dies broken. Paro’s choice to marry another man is an act of self-respect, not weakness. The only thing overrated here is her fake accent, not Devdas pic.twitter.com/rRVKc6OKiw
— r (@bekhayalime) May 15, 2026
This clip from the interview soon went viral on X, with Dananeer receiving massive backlash. In fact, one of the users also pointed out how the actress had dressed up as Paro from the film during a segment on one of her shows called Very Filmy.
Internet reacts to Dananeer’s comments on Devdas
Netizens strongly reacted to Dananeer’s comments about Devdas. One of the users wrote, “I’m sure Dananeer has no clue that Devdas was based on a novel from Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, one of the most prolific authors from the Bengali Renaissance. This is what happens when you become an actor due to viral reels.” Another user said, “What a shallow and uninformed take on Devdas. Reducing a classic like that to casual commentary shows a real lack of understanding of cinema. Not every opinion needs to be voiced, especially when it dismisses something so iconic so lightly. Very disappointing.”
I’m sure Dananeer has no clue that Devdas was based on a novel from Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, one of the most prolific authors from the Bengali Renaissance. This is what happens when you become an actor due to viral reels. She probably thinks Ismat Chughtai is a medical lab pic.twitter.com/CATep4nU71
— Syed Zain Raza (@MrZainRaza) May 15, 2026
A third user wrote, “She is insufferable. I couldn’t even make it through the whole clip. Someone please sit her down and explain to her what a “tragedy,” is in the literary sense. Or better yet, stop giving her the damn mic altogether and save us all the trouble.” Another user wrote, “Someone should remind Dananeer, Devdas does not glorify alcoholism. His downfall is driven by ego and addiction, and he dies broken. Paro’s choice to marry another man is an act of self-respect, not weakness. The only thing overrated here is her fake accent, not Devdas.”
The backlash continued with someone calling Dananeer an attention seeker, while another user referred to her views as idiotic. “Dananeer is an attention seeker !!! Always tries to become famous through shortcuts!,” a user wrote. Another one said, “What an utterly idiotic take. She is running down one of the greatest classics written by one of the greatest playwrights who ever existed. That’s why education is so important. Any random person getting a mic and speaking nonsense needs to stop.”
What Sanjay Leela Bhansali said about Devdas?
In 2024, during an interview with Hollywood Reporter India, director Sanjay Leela Bhansali had also spoken about the perceptions around Devdas’ character being toxic. He had shared that several actors had reservations about how the character would be portrayed. “What is the story of Devdas? That he’s a loser, he doesn’t do anything, he gets upset… My actors didn’t understand why we’re telling this story. They said, ‘Oh, it’s romanticising alcoholism’. I said, ‘This is the story of a man who loved.’ What is our biggest duty in this life? To love and give love. Does anyone love like Devdas. I wanted to say, ‘If you love somebody, that’s how you love’. Devdas is a story of a man who loved. People have been making Devdas (for years). Why? They say he’s a loser. He’s not a loser. He’s the most noble of any of my characters. He loved Paro. You ask him anything, he would say, ‘Paro’. That is love. That is a love story.”
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Talking about this character, Shah Rukh Khan had said at the Locarno Film Festival in 2024, “I don’t like to play characters that demean women, I didn’t want him to be liked in the film for the reason that he disses a woman and doesn’t commit to her, I wanted him to come across as a person who is spineless and not somebody you should look up to. Bhansali made the film beautifully, but I don’t think anybody wants to be Devdas, it is not a character you take back home. I just didn’t want a character who has commitment issues with women to become popular in a different sense, I think I achieved that.”
Dananeer is yet to react to this online backlash over her comments.
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