Somebody at the hotel had a sense of humour. When Bollywood Hungama's team landed in Goa this week for the trailer launch of Drishyam The Conclusion, the lunch buffet had been dressed up as 'Martin's Corner,' named for the restaurant Martin Uncle runs inside the film. Pav bhaji was on the menu, obviously.

And right there, waiting for lunch like everyone else, was Dr Sharad Bhutadiya, the actor who has played Martin across all three films since 2015.

He found the tribute genuinely touching. "This makes me very proud," he told Bollywood Hungama, crediting the writer, Ajay Devgn and the director for a character that has outlasted a decade of Bollywood churn. "Hum sab ne milke uss waqt jo kiya tha, woh abhi tak logon ko yaad hai."

The casting itself wasn't dramatic. Bhutadiya says the late Nishikant Kamat, who directed the first film, never personally offered him the role. Someone from the production called him in Pune, laid out the part in a few lines, and asked if he was in. He said yes without having watched the Malayalam original starring Mohanlal, something he only caught up with after wrapping his own portion.

On the new film, he stayed on message with the rest of the cast. "I can't say much," he said, "but I can assure you that Drishyam The Conclusion is very different from the Malayalam Drishyam's third part." That's about as much as anyone associated with the film has been willing to give away, and it lines up with the broader silence the team has kept around the plot.

Fame arrived in a way he still finds odd. Recognised on the street since the first film released in 2015, Bhutadiya seems almost amused by it. "Mere role mein aisa kuch tha hi nahin," he said. "And yet, people appreciated it a lot." He got two or three offers off the back of it, all turned down because of prior commitments, a decision he now admits he sometimes second-guesses.

On his co-star, the compliments were unforced. "He's very cool and down-to-earth," Bhutadiya said of Ajay Devgn. "He never does show-off or anything of that sort. He talks to co-actors respectfully. He treats everyone equally. Yeh aaj kal nahin dekhne ko milta hai."

As for whether the franchise actually ends here, despite the title, Bhutadiya wouldn't commit either way. "Woh pata nahin," he laughed. Asked directly about a part four, he left the door open. "Part 4 bhi ho sakta hai. It all depends on the writer. Writer ke dimaag mein kya chalta hai, yeh samajhna bahut mushkil hai."

Drishyam The Conclusion is headed for release with the trailer now out, and if Bhutadiya's read is right, the franchise's actual conclusion might just be a suggestion.