(L-R) Parveez Shaikh, Abhishek Pathak, and Aamil Keeyan Khan. Pics/YouTube, By Special Arrangement

Big risk, big reward holds true for Drishyam The Conclusion. Writer-director Abhishek Pathak crafted an original story for the Ajay Devgn, Tabu, and Jaideep Ahlawat-starrer, departing from the Malayalam franchise on which the first two instalments were based. Now, the win is for all to see as the suspense thriller’s threequel has reportedly grossed over Rs 300 crore in India. Aamil Keeyan Khan, who co-wrote the screenplay and wrote the dialogues, attributes its success to Pathak’s vision and Devgn’s faith in it.   

“Ajay sir stood behind us like a rock, supporting us in whatever we did. We narrated the first draft to him in April 2025, he loved it. After that, we made a lot of revisions and he was on board with everything,” recalled Khan of how they closed the story that began eight years ago when Devgn’s Vijay Salgaonkar and his family covered up an accidental murder. 

Besides not relying on the Malayalam Drishyam 3, the Hindi counterpart had another challenge — Akshaye Khanna walked out of the film a week before it rolled. The writers quickly reworked the script, and Pathak roped in Ahlawat. Easier said than done.

Khan recounted, “We had to set Jaideep sir’s character dynamics with other players, and we had to deliver in seven days! We wrote 100 drafts for some scenes. We even had 15-20 versions of the ending. It was a humongous challenge as people had seen the first two parts and we had to surprise them. A lot of [the script] was scrapped and rewritten in those seven days.”

One question remained constant as they shaped and reshaped the story: how dark would Vijay Salgaonkar turn to save his family? “Vijay is doing the wrong thing for the right cause. There were so many drafts where he has gone much darker and then we pulled ourselves back, thinking, ‘Is that really Vijay?’ We toyed with the idea of him going completely dark.”