--- title: 'Abhishek Pathak Says Drishyam: The Conclusion Turns Vijay Darker' type: 'blog post' section: 'Away From Set' format: 'Editorial feature' standfirst: 'The director says Ajay Devgn’s final Drishyam film follows an original Hindi story, with Jaideep Ahlawat’s new cop pushing Vijay Salgaonkar into his most morally shadowed chapter. The film opens October 2, while Panorama Studios builds Korean, Spanish and English versions abroad.' author: 'Dorothy Kwan' published: '2026-09-14' updated: '2026-09-14' about_people: - 'Abhishek Pathak' - 'Ajay Devgn' tags: - 'Drishyam The Conclusion Abhishek Pathak interview' - 'Ajay Devgn Vijay Salgaonkar darker role' - 'Drishyam 3 Hindi original story vs Mohanlal' - 'Jaideep Ahlawat Drishyam new cop character' - 'Drishyam The Conclusion release date October 2 2026' - 'Panorama Studios Korean Spanish English Drishyam remakes' sources: - 'https://www.bollywoodshaadis.com/articles/ajay-devgn-drishyam-3-different-from-mohanlal-84483' - 'https://odishatv.in/entertainment/ajay-devgns-drishyam-the-conclusion-takes-a-new-route-says-its-nothing-like-mohanlals-drishyam-3-12515612' - 'https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/movies/articles/drishyam-conclusion-director-abhishek-pathak-095140624.html' - 'https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/drishyam-the-conclusion-director-on-ajay-devgns-darker-turn/ar-AA2bRytA' - 'https://www.outlookindia.com/art-entertainment/drishyam-the-conclusion-trailer-ajay-devgns-vijay-faces-a-new-threat-from-cop-jaideep-ahlawat' - 'https://www.mensxp.com/entertainment/bollywood/185719-drishyam-3-trailer-ajay-devgn-tabu-shriya-saran-prakash-raj.html' - 'https://www.bollywoodhungama.com/news/features/drishyam-the-conclusion-trailer-launch-main-aa-raha-hoon-khaali-kutte-ko-sambhal-ke-rakhna-kumar-mangat-pathaks-hilarious-ajay-devgn-anecdote-leaves-audience-in-s/' - 'https://www.indiatoday.in/movies/bollywood/story/ajay-devgn-says-drishyam-3-will-end-franchise-on-a-high-wants-mohanlal-to-see-it-2990630-2026-09-09' canonical: 'https://cinepixo.com/blog/abhishek-pathak-says-drishyam-the-conclusion-turns-vijay-darker' publisher: 'CinePixo' --- # Abhishek Pathak Says Drishyam: The Conclusion Turns Vijay Darker *The director says Ajay Devgn’s final Drishyam film follows an original Hindi story, with Jaideep Ahlawat’s new cop pushing Vijay Salgaonkar into his most morally shadowed chapter. The film opens October 2, while Panorama Studios builds Korean, Spanish and English versions abroad.* By Dorothy Kwan, 2026-09-14 · Away From Set The trailer for **Drishyam: The Conclusion** arrived on September 9, and director Abhishek Pathak says the Hindi franchise is breaking away from Mohanlal’s Malayalam **Drishyam 3** altogether. Ajay Devgn returns as Vijay Salgaonkar, but Pathak describes this version as Vijay’s darkest chapter yet, with Jaideep Ahlawat entering as a new police adversary. That matters because the film is selling two endings at once: the close of Vijay’s story and the expansion of a franchise that now reaches beyond India. The film releases in cinemas on October 2. Pathak told Variety that the Hindi finale has “nothing to do with Malayalam,” calling it a new story rather than a revised adaptation. Devgn made the same distinction at the trailer launch, saying the second Hindi film drew, in part, from the Malayalam original while this one follows an entirely separate script. ## Abhishek Pathak Breaks With Mohanlal’s Drishyam 3 The publicity line here is simple, almost suspiciously simple: different story, different ending, no fourth Hindi film planned. Pathak says he has written the conclusion so that its major conflicts resolve, and he has not prepared a continuation. He also leaves the door technically unlocked, because filmmakers love an escape hatch, but the stated plan is an ending. That split now separates the two central men of the franchise. Mohanlal plays Georgekutty in the Malayalam films; Devgn plays Vijay, the Goan cable operator who has spent two Hindi films staying ahead of the police after a death threatens his family. The Malayalam **Drishyam 3** released on May 21, 2026, and Variety reported worldwide gross of about INR239 crore. The Hindi film is taking its own route after the point where both series’ second chapters stopped. Pathak told Variety that he began working on the new story after **Drishyam 2** opened in 2022. The screenplay took about two years. He read fan theories online, looked for gaps in Vijay’s history and tried to stay ahead of an audience that has become very good at guessing the next move. That is the actual assignment in a **Drishyam** film: make the viewer feel clever, then punish the confidence. ![Ajay devgn is a bollywood actor, known for blockbuster films like singham, golmaal series](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/09/318e597a-2e46-4b1f-9162-43512e7cff07.webp) *Photo: Becks pinto · [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ajay_Devgn_.jpg)* ## Vijay Salgaonkar Gets Colder, Not Louder Pathak says Vijay’s guiding rule has stayed fixed across all three films: anything for family. The change comes in the moral temperature. He describes Vijay as increasingly ambiguous, with “darker shades” settling over a man audiences still support even when he acts outside the law. The trailer’s setup pushes that change. Tabu’s character remains tied to the search for her missing son, but the pursuit now carries a revenge motive. Ahlawat plays SP Crime Branch Rajveer Singh Tomar, the investigator who takes over a case that has resisted every earlier attempt to crack it. The trailer frames him as a more forceful threat, one who believes the evidence can finally break Vijay’s carefully arranged story. Pathak also stresses what Devgn does not do. Vijay never turns to violence across the three films, he says. Devgn’s performance depends on restraint: the character speaks little and spends his time thinking. That makes the “darker” promise more interesting than another round of shouting, guns and cop-show furniture. The danger sits behind the face. Whether the film earns that tension is unknown; the reporting does not provide a finished-film account. ![Drishyam Indian thriller drama film directed by Nishikant Kamat. Actor Ajay Devgn permoting his pinkcity Jaipur.](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/09/bf0f468d-40e0-4479-ad3a-60e003177587.webp) *Photo: Sureshsharmaptv63 · [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Drishyam_Actor_Ajay_Devgn_with_suresh_sharma.JPG)* ## Jaideep Ahlawat Joins a Franchise That Keeps Recasting Power Ahlawat joined after Akshaye Khanna exited the project in January 2026. He is not taking over Khanna’s role, according to the reports; he plays a new character. Pathak told Variety that viewers will see a different side of Ahlawat, while Ahlawat said he never felt like an outsider on the production. The returning cast includes Tabu, Shriya Saran and Rajat Kapoor, with Prakash Raj joining in a new role. Pathak co-wrote the screenplay with Aamil Keeyan Khan and Parveez Shaikh. At the Goa trailer launch, producer Kumar Mangat Pathak supplied the evening’s comic relief with a story about Devgn’s dog biting him after he had fed it as a puppy. The anecdote landed because the franchise’s business machinery can sound so solemn; someone had to mention the animal. ## Panorama Studios Takes Drishyam International The Hindi films began as remakes, but the property now operates like a multilingual export. Variety reported that Panorama Studios, which controls the Hindi and international remake rights, is developing Korean, Spanish and English versions while keeping its Indian-language output to Hindi. Pathak said the Korean script is complete and production is about to begin. A Spanish version is starting, and an English version is being developed at the same time. He says overseas partners moved quickly after reading the screenplay. There are no current plans for more Indian-language remakes, and no confirmed spinoff, although Pathak points to Gaitonde, the recurring quirky supporting character, as someone who could carry another story. For now, the concrete deadline is October 2. Vijay gets one last case, one new cop and a director insisting that the ending belongs to this Hindi franchise alone. The next secret is whether “final” means final—or simply the most profitable word in the trailer. ## How this piece was made **Format:** Editorial feature ## In this piece - [Abhishek Pathak](https://cinepixo.com/people/abhishek-pathak) - [Ajay Devgn](https://cinepixo.com/people/ajay-devgn) ## Sources - https://www.bollywoodshaadis.com/articles/ajay-devgn-drishyam-3-different-from-mohanlal-84483 - https://odishatv.in/entertainment/ajay-devgns-drishyam-the-conclusion-takes-a-new-route-says-its-nothing-like-mohanlals-drishyam-3-12515612 - https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/movies/articles/drishyam-conclusion-director-abhishek-pathak-095140624.html - https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/drishyam-the-conclusion-director-on-ajay-devgns-darker-turn/ar-AA2bRytA - https://www.outlookindia.com/art-entertainment/drishyam-the-conclusion-trailer-ajay-devgns-vijay-faces-a-new-threat-from-cop-jaideep-ahlawat - https://www.mensxp.com/entertainment/bollywood/185719-drishyam-3-trailer-ajay-devgn-tabu-shriya-saran-prakash-raj.html - https://www.bollywoodhungama.com/news/features/drishyam-the-conclusion-trailer-launch-main-aa-raha-hoon-khaali-kutte-ko-sambhal-ke-rakhna-kumar-mangat-pathaks-hilarious-ajay-devgn-anecdote-leaves-audience-in-s/ - https://www.indiatoday.in/movies/bollywood/story/ajay-devgn-says-drishyam-3-will-end-franchise-on-a-high-wants-mohanlal-to-see-it-2990630-2026-09-09 Every factual claim above is drawn from these. The reading of them is ours. Source: https://cinepixo.com/blog/abhishek-pathak-says-drishyam-the-conclusion-turns-vijay-darker Written for CinePixo. Nothing on this page is imported prose.