Drishyam 3 director Abhishek Pathak on rewriting Jaideep Ahlawat's character: ‘It took seven days to crack'

Jaideep Ahlawat in the film.Pics/Youtube, Yogen Shah

By its very title, Drishyam: The Conclusion director Abhishek Pathak has made his stance clear. Even as the Malayalam version of the Drishyam franchise is going forward with a fourth instalment, the Ajay Devgn-led Hindi story culminates with the upcoming third edition.

"I don't want to do a fourth part because Drishyam cannot go on for the sake of going on. It has to end on a good note, and this point is just that," began Pathak.

(L-R) Abhishek Pathak with Ajay Devgn

The world of the thriller - that sees Devgn's Vijay Salgaonkar and his family covering up an accidental murder for years - is well-known to the director as he had helmed the second part too. But the third instalment threw a challenge his way when Akshaye Khanna exited it days before the shoot. Creating a new character, played by Jaideep Ahlawat, against a ticking clock was far from easy. Pathak shared, "We were just seven to 10 days away from my shoot. A set was getting constructed, and I had to take a call. So, my [writing] team and I decided we have to change the character. It took about seven days to crack the new character. After making a blueprint [of what the character would be like], we started writing scenes. It turned into magic. Sometimes you get great work done under pressure."

While the Hindi franchise is wrapping up, Drishyam is travelling much further. A Korean adaptation is in the works. Pathak is involved not only as a rights-holder, but also as a producer. "We are producing that film with the Korean producers. We own the global rights for this franchise. So, we are hands-on [as producers]. We're getting to the shoot soon," he shared. Even as the Korean version will retain Drishyam's essence, Pathak added that the story will be tweaked to incorporate the country's culture, and more importantly, its law.

Mohanlal

While the first two parts of ‘Drishyam' Hindi were an adaptation of its Malayalam original, the upcoming part has a different story from Mohanlal's ‘Drishyam 3' that released in May