Dev Anand was among the few Bollywood Stars who was admired and inspiration to generations. His fan following is still intact. There are millions of his fans all across the globe. There are many fan clubs all over the world organize musical programmes and photo exhibitions on his Birth Anniversary or Death Anniversary. He is among the top Bollywood heroes having the maximum number of Groups or Pages in Social media.
Writing in the Preface of his Autobiography Dev Anand says that he used to receive a lot of fan mail every day. One of his fans wrote him 3720 letters in a hope of one-day receiving a reply from me.
Dev Anand also had admirers in various fields of life, lawyers, doctors, judges, and politicians. Pt Jawaharlal Nehru was his admirer, V.K Krishna Menon, the first defense minister of India, was also his admirer, Atal Bihar Van payee ji L.K Advani and leaders cutting across all political parties Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray was also his admirer. Dev Anand knew the Shiv Sena Supremo, Balasaheb Thackeray when he was a junior cartoonist working with the Free Press Journal drawing a salary of hundred and fifty rupees and called him “Bal”. When Thackeray was at his peak,he invited him to his house “Matoshri”. Dev was given a red carpet welcome with the entire Thackeray family present to welcome him. Nawaz Sharif, the Pakistan Prime Minister is also his admirer.
Some of the biggest stars of that era were his unabashed fans. Stars like Sunil Dutt,Dharmendra Shammi Kapoor,Shashi Kapoor were his admirers. Jackie Shroff,Ranjeet,Amitabh Bachchan and Film maker Subhash Ghai are his admirer.
Among the actresses who not only respected him but showed their reverence for him was Hema Malini who did six films with him, Waheeda Rehman who did seven films with him and Raakhee who did three. In fact, Hema and Raakhee used to visit temples and pray for Dev on his birthdays and especially on the days his new films were released. Tabu was the one female star of the new generation who looked up to Dev like her “godfather”.
Dev Anand was always down to earth. Style and simplicity ran parallel for him.Making the other person comfortable was his magic mantra. He always treated his fans with love and respect.His fans were his second love after movies.
One of his fan Yuvraj Shah of Pune dedicated a garden in his name which is situated on the campus of Mahavir Jain Vidyalaya Pune. The name of the garden is Sadabhaar Dev Anand Udyan.
Another great fan of Dev Anand is Anand Thirani of Kolkata.He met Dev Saab when he was studying in college many years ago, later he became a successful businessman and used to travel all over the world. He used to bring the signature scarves the star wore in many of his films.
Another fan the ex DGP of Maharashtra whom Dev treated as his son feels himself lucky to “did his duty” by performing last rites of the actor along with Dev Anand 's son by immersing his ashes in Godavari, Nashik.
Among all his fans Mr. Mohan Churiwala was his closest associate. Iin the last 15 years of the actor's life, streamlining his work, meetings with people, media management. All this for free. He accompanied him on his foreign trips. His exclusive pictures with Dev Saab were published in Filmfare September 2017 issue.
