In an interview with Filmfare, Abhay Deol spoke about his views on the film Dev D and how it glamorized drugs and alcohol instead of challenging toxic masculinity. According to Deol, the director Anurag Kashyap's adaptation of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s classic Bengali novel Devdas had an opposite impact on the audience, making the depiction of drugs and alcohol 'cool.' This has led to a backlash from Deol, who has often called out Kashyap for glorifying toxic masculinity. Despite their differing opinions, the movie was a commercial success, earning 20 crores at the box office.