Screenwriter Aamil Keeyan Khan has said cracking the ending of Drishyam 3, titled Drishyam: The Conclusion, took more than 100 drafts. In a recent interview, Aamil said the biggest challenge was to write a new story for the third film without borrowing from the original source material, while still keeping the spirit of the franchise intact.

The film marks a shift for the Hindi series, as the first two films were direct remakes of Mohanlal’s Malayalam Drishyam films, while the third takes Vijay Salgaonkar and his family in a new direction with an original story and ending.

Speaking to The Free Press Journal, Aamil described the writing process as a demanding one. “It was an enormous mountain to climb. You have a beloved franchise, a family that the audiences have lived with for years, and the legacy of two hugely loved films sitting on your shoulders. And most importantly, how do you surprise an audience for the third time? There was the challenge of writing an original screenplay while retaining the DNA of Drishyam. It still had to have humour, family, emotion, drama and thrills without any one ingredient swallowing the others. It was a very, very thin tightrope. Thankfully, none of us looked down.”

He said doing justice to the film’s ending was not easy and that the work went through draft after draft before the team arrived at the final version.

More than 100 drafts

Sharing a lighter account of the process, Aamil said, “I have folders inside folders, drafts with dates, numbers, dates after numbers, and files called things like ‘FINAL’, ‘FINAL 2’, ‘FINAL FINAL’ and presumably ‘FINAL PLEASE GOD’. I have genuinely lost count, but well over a hundred drafts in different forms. Easily.”

All you need to know about the film

Drishyam: The Conclusion closes Salgaonkar’s battle against the Goa police, who are trying to establish that he hid the body of a boy who was the son of IGP Meera Deshmukh. The film has also recorded a strong start at the box office. It has earned Rs 176.50 crore nett in India and Rs 272.80 crore gross worldwide in three days.

The film is directed by Abhishek Pathak and brings back Ajay Devgn as Vijay Salgaonkar. Shriya Saran, Tabu, Ishita Dutta and Mrunal Jadhav also return, while Jaideep Ahlawat, Rajat Kapoor and Prakash Raj are part of the cast.

Source: India Today