Saurabh Shukla’s best performance is in Daas Dev, asserts Sudhir Mishra

In a career spanning more than two decades, Saurabh Shukla has played various characters with perfection. Whether as Batuk Maharaj in Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006), inspector Sudhanshu Dutta in Barfi! (2012), judge Tripathi in Jolly LLB (2013) or Rajaji in the recently released Raid (2018), Shukla has consistently given fine performances in more than 100 films.

However, filmmaker Sudhir Mishra believes that Shukla’s best performance so far will be in his upcoming film Daas Dev. During an exclusive conversation with Cinestaan.com, Mishra said, “It’s the best performance of his career. He is absolutely outstanding.”

Starring Rahul Bhat, Richa Chadha and Aditi Rao Hydari, Daas Dev is a modern, political take on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s famed classic novel Devdas.

Mishra also revealed that Shukla’s character in the film is more so inspired from Shakespeare's Hamlet than Chattopadhyay’s Devdas. “Saurabh Shukla’s character is not in the original Devdas. He owes more to Hamlet,” he added.

The filmmaker said that his association with the actor goes back to when Shukla began his acting career in the 1990s. “I have known Saurabh since long. He started with Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin (first major role) in 1996. I know him since then. He has been there in almost all my films. But this (Daas Dev) is his best part,” he said.