'Drishyam 3': Jeethu Joseph Stalls Shoot Of Hindi Version; Threatens Legal Action
The shoot of the third instalment starring Mohanlal is expected to begin in October this year
In a recent interview, director Jeethu Joseph stated that he had stalled the shoot of the Hindi version of Drishyam 3, saying that work on the remake should not begin before the shoot of the Malayalam version. Additional production details of the Hindi version, however, was not revealed.
He said that there were initial talks of the both versions getting shot simultaneously, but the plans were later dropped once Jeethu hinted that such a move would be dealt with legally. He had also recently stated that he was under a lot of pressure to complete the writing of the third instalment and that he was waking up at 3.30 AM daily to finish it. At a college event, he had even confirmed that he had finally cracked the climax of the film.
Jeethu Joseph was supposed to complete the filming of another Mohanlal-starrer Ram, but that too has been stuck in more than two years owing the complex logistics of shooting the film in multiple foreign locations.
The first part of Drishyam was remade in Kannada, Tamil and Telugu apart from the Hindi version. In Kannada, it starred V Ravichandran and in Telugu, Venkatesh played the lead in 2014. Kamal Haasan did it in Tamil in 2015, as did Ajay Devgn in Hindi. Drishyam was also remade in Sinhala and Chinese, and the Indonesian and Korean remakes are said to be in production.
The sequel was released in Malayalam (on a direct to OTT basis), Kannada, and Telugu in 2021 and in Hindi in 2022. Drishyam 3 was officially announced in February 2025.
As for Jeethu, his next release is expected to be Mirage with Asif Ali. The upcoming thriller also stars Hakim Shahjahan, Hannah Reji Koshy and Sampath. The makers dropped the poster online, writing, "You kept getting closer. And this time, it didn’t fade." Mirage is the sixth collaboration between Ali and Balamurali, who were last seen in Kishkinda Kaandam (2024). Joseph also directed Ali in Kooman (2022), which was about a police officer who finds himself drawn to committing crimes.