Top Bollywood star Ajay Devgn tells Variety he is confident “Drishyam 3: The Conclusion” clears the bar set by its predecessors, calling the psychological thriller’s twists unpredictable even for genre-savvy audiences accustomed to guessing outcomes. Speaking ahead of the film’s Oct. 2 release, Devgn says the Hindi-language franchise ends definitively, unlike its open-ended Malayalam-language counterpart. Devgn, who plays the protagonist Vijay Salgaonkar, watched the completed film on Tuesday and emerged reassured, despite what he describes as the pressure of following two successful predecessors, particularly the second installment, which he calls a difficult film to follow.
He watched it alongside people whose judgment he trusts, and came away without the fear that audiences might feel it could have been better. He credits writer/director Abhishek Pathak and the writing team, saying the film is shot well and grips audiences throughout. The “Drishyam” story has traveled widely since Jeethu Joseph’s original Malayalam film starring Mohanlal opened in 2013.
It was remade in Kannada as “Drishya” and in Telugu as “Drushyam,” both in 2014, and in Tamil as “Papanasam” in 2015, with Kamal Haasan in the lead and Joseph again directing. The Hindi version, starring Devgn and Tabu, also arrived in 2015, followed by a Sinhala remake and the Chinese adaptation “Sheep Without a Shepherd” in 2019. Joseph’s Malayalam sequel arrived in 2021, with Pathak’s Hindi “Drishyam 2” following in 2022.
The Malayalam “Drishyam 3” opened earlier this year and has grossed INR239 crore ($25 million). Panorama Studios, which holds the Hindi and international remake rights, is now developing Korean, Spanish and English versions of the franchise, while limiting its own Indian-language output to Hindi. On playing the character across all three films, Devgn says Salgaonkar has “become more calmer, I would say.
He’s more prepared,” he says, noting the story picks up directly where “Drishyam 2” left off rather than showing a further gap in the character’s development, so there is limited room to trace additional emotional evolution beyond what the film itself depicts. Devgn spoke to Variety on the sidelines of the FICCI-Frames Indian media industry conference in Mumbai where he was in conversation with Alok Jain, head – Hindi and English entertainment business (streaming, TV and studios), JioStar. Despite the Malayalam “Drishyam 3” leaving its ending open, Devgn says the Hindi version takes a different approach entirely.
And in our film, we’re not leaving any loophole or anything. This is the conclusion.” Devgn says his next release, the comedy “Golmaal 5,” is complete and will arrive in January. He has also wrapped an as-yet-untitled film carrying the working title “Ranger,” a Luv Ranjan production, and is preparing to start work on “Chauhan.” Asked about further installments of the “Raid” franchise, Devgn says he would continue only with the right material.
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