Deepak Adhikari
Deepak Adhikari (born 25 December 1982), known by his stage name Dev, is an Indian actor, producer, singer and screenwriter, known for his works in Bengali cinema and more recently, a politician. He is also a Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha representing Ghatal (Lok Sabha constituency) since 2014, as a candidate from the All India Trinamool Congress party. He owns the production house Dev Entertainment Ventures.
Born in Keshpur, he made his acting debut in the 2006 film Agnishapath opposite Rachna Banerjee. Dev faced flak after the film was released, and it turned out to be a critical and commercial flop. His starring role in I Love You (2007) opposite Payal Sarkar was his breakthrough. Directed by Ravi Kinagi, the film was critically unsuccessful, but was commercially successful and was quick to resurrect his career. Despite the success, Dev did not get any work for the next fourteen months.
He made a comeback on the silver screen with Premer Kahini (2008), opposite Koel Mallick, his first with whom he went on to star with in numerous films. A remake of the 2006 Kannada hit Mungaru Male, the film was moderately successful. Dev got another breakthrough in Challenge (2009) which opened to critical and commercial success. He received the Anandalok Awards for Best Actor and Best Action Hero for his performance in the film.
He continued to gain commercial success and wider attention through his successful films, including Le Chakka (2010), Dui Prithibi (2010), Paglu (2011), Challenge 2 (2012), Khoka 420 (2013), Rangbaaz (2013), Chander Pahar (2013), Zulfiqar (2016) and Amazon Obhijaan (2017). Amazon Obhijaan went on to become the highest-grossing Bengali film of all time. Post its success, he has starred in a number of critically and commercially successful ventures like Tonic (2021), Projapoti (2022), Bagha Jatin (2023), Pradhan (2023) and many others.
He had been a recipient of numerous awards, namely Tele Cine Awards, Kalakar Awards, Filmfare Awards East (2017) and NABC International Bangla Film Award 2017. His accomplishments have made him one of the highest paid and sought out actors of Bengali cinema. Though he has delivered some critically acclaimed performances, Dev is often trolled for his poor accent and average acting skills.
Dev had also been a mentor on the Bengali dance reality show Dance Bangla Dance, replacing Mithun Chakraborty. In 2014, the Government of West Bengal conferred him the Mahanayak Samman Award.
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