Director Abhishek Pathak says Mohanlal rang Ajay Devgn and producer Kumar Mangat Pathak right after the Goa trailer launch, and a full screening is still pending.
Mohanlal picked up the phone after the trailer of Drishyam The Conclusion went out, and called both Ajay Devgn and producer Kumar Mangat Pathak to tell them he liked what he saw. That's the detail director Abhishek Pathak dropped in an exclusive conversation with Bollywood Hungama, and it settles, at least partly, the question every Drishyam fan has been asking since the trailer dropped: does the Malayalam original's star approve of where Bollywood took his story.
The full screening hasn't happened yet. Mohanlal was travelling when he called, Pathak said, and the team is waiting for him to be free so they can show him the finished film rather than just the trailer. At the Goa launch event, Ajay Devgn had been blunt about wanting that approval, saying he was "dying" for Mohanlal to see it.
The title itself has a story behind it. The film was shot as Drishyam 3. The switch to Drishyam The Conclusion happened only a couple of months ago, and Pathak says it was a deliberate move to shut down speculation. Call something Drishyam 3, he reasoned, and audiences immediately start wondering about a fourth. The new title tells them there isn't one coming.
That's also the first Drishyam film to properly break from its Malayalam source. The 2015 original and Drishyam 2 stuck close to the Mohanlal versions. This one doesn't. Pathak, who also co-wrote and produced, says he decided after Drishyam 2 released that he wanted to write the next chapter himself instead of waiting to see what the Malayalam Drishyam 3 did and then reacting to it. He spent two years on the story, screenplay and dialogues, and narrated it to Devgn and the rest of the team before anyone signed off. Everyone loved it, he says, which is what gave the project its confidence.
The trailer launch itself was staged bigger than the Drishyam 2 event, which was also held in Goa. This time the team took people to the actual locations where the film was shot, a call Pathak describes as nostalgic given the series is wrapping up.
On directing Devgn this time round, Pathak admits the nerves from Drishyam 2 didn't carry over. He'd grown up watching Devgn on screen, and instructing him on set the first time round was intimidating. By Drishyam The Conclusion, that unease was gone.
There's more on the way from the same banner. Pathak confirmed a horror film with Devgn is already shooting, with the Mumbai leg wrapping up before a second schedule in North India. That one's pegged for a 2027 release.
On the exhibition side, Pathak said he hadn't had time to dig into PVR Inox's proposal to scrap the Virtual Print Fee in favour of an Exhibition Service Charge or Revised Revenue Share, given how consumed he's been with the release. His instinct, though, is that waiving VPF would help producers, since that cost sits with them.
Drishyam The Conclusion opens in theatres on October 2.
Be the first to comment
Join the argument. No password, just your email or a passkey.