Definition of "Devdas"

"I don't know," he had said and sighed, Devdas style: "I don't know," Everyone wants to be a Devdas, at least for a while — or perhaps only for a while. Tragic hero.

1980, Sāhitya Akademi, Indian Literature, volume 23, page 539

It reminds me very much of the Devdas character that so suffuses Indian cinema, not just in the 1935 and 1955 film versions, but as a 'Devdas effect' in Hindi melodramas, especially those of Raj Kapoor and Guru Dutt.

1996, Bruce Bennett, Crossing Cultures: Essays on Literature and Culture of the Asia-Pacific

Indians everywhere recognized that when somebody pined, longed, and raged for someone else, they were "doing a Devdas."

2007, Anupama Chopra, King of Bollywood: Shah Rukh Khan and the Seductive World of Indian Cinema

The character of Kashyap's Dev, although it is built on the same model as traditional Devdases, is different and suffers for other reasons.

2017, Cornelius Crowley, Heritage and Ruptures in Indian Literature, Culture and Cinema, page 198