S. H. N. Murthy, author of the 2012 Routledge article "Film remakes as cross-cultural connections between North and South", praised "Devadasu" for "follow[ing] closely the text of the novel as a hypotext".Murthy was the first author to interpret the Devadas phenomenon in terms of de-westernising media studies by appropriately locating the character of Devdas into the relevant and contemporary religious ethos of India that time.