People's Choice

Drishyam 3: Can Ajay Devgn’s Franchise Survive Without Its Own Story?

Published

4 weeks ago

September 11, 2026

Johal

Drishyam 3: Can Ajay Devgn’s Franchise Survive Without Its Own Story?

Balle Balle Radio™ Entertainment Desk

As Drishyam 3 heads toward its October 2 release with a new cast pairing of Ajay Devgn and Jaideep Ahlawat, the franchise faces a question bigger than box office numbers — how much longer can it lean on borrowed plots before audiences start asking for something original.

Ajay Devgn is heading back to Goa, and so is Georgekutty.

Drishyam 3 is set for release on October 2, and the film’s trailer tour has already put the franchise back in conversation — not just for what’s new on screen, but for who isn’t there anymore. Akshaye Khanna, who played the quietly menacing IG Meera Deshmukh’s husband-adjacent antagonist across the last two Hindi instalments, has been replaced by Jaideep Ahlawat. It’s the kind of casting swap that tends to generate more chatter than any plot detail, largely because Ahlawat carries a very different screen presence — colder, more procedural, less theatrical — than what Khanna brought to the role.

That shift matters more than it might first appear. The Drishyam series, in both its Malayalam original and Hindi adaptation, has always worked as a cat-and-mouse duel between a resourceful, ordinary family man and a relentless investigator closing in on the truth. Change the investigator, and you change the temperature of the entire film. Ahlawat, an actor known for restraint rather than volatility, could push the franchise into quieter, more psychologically tense territory than the Hindi version has attempted before.

A Franchise Built on Someone Else’s Blueprint

It’s worth being direct about something the marketing around Drishyam tends to soften: this is not an original Hindi story. The franchise is a remake of the Malayalam Drishyam, written and directed by Jeethu Joseph, which itself spawned adaptations across multiple Indian languages before Bollywood’s version arrived. Ajay Devgn’s Drishyam and Drishyam 2 followed the Malayalam films’ structure closely enough that much of the tension for Hindi audiences came from performance and craft rather than narrative surprise.

That’s not necessarily a weakness. Remakes have long been part of Indian commercial cinema, and a well-executed one can introduce a story to an entirely new audience who never encountered the original. But it does raise a fair question heading into a third instalment: is Drishyam 3 continuing Jeethu Joseph’s narrative universe, or is it now improvising within a框架 that has run out of source material to borrow from? If the Hindi version is moving into territory the Malayalam original hasn’t yet covered, that’s a meaningfully different creative proposition — one that asks Devgn and his writers to sustain suspense on their own terms rather than repackage a story that already proved itself elsewhere.

What the Genre Promises

Drishyam’s appeal has never really been about shock value. It’s a slow-burn procedural built around a family protecting itself through intelligence rather than violence, and its emotional anchor is Georgekutty — an ordinary man whose devotion to his wife and daughters becomes indistinguishable from his cunning. Audiences return to this franchise for the satisfaction of watching a plan unfold in hindsight, not for spectacle.

That creates a specific expectation problem for a third film. The twist of the first film was the twist. The tension of the second was in watching the investigation reopen. A third instalment has to find a genuinely new angle of pressure on the same family, without repeating the beats that made the first two work, and without feeling like the franchise is manufacturing jeopardy simply because the box office asked for a sequel.

Reading the Casting Change

There’s a temptation to read the Khanna-to-Ahlawat swap purely as scheduling or contractual matter — these things often are, and no evidence here suggests otherwise. But from a storytelling standpoint, it’s also an opportunity. Ahlawat has built a career on internalised menace — think of his work in the kind of role where stillness reads as more dangerous than shouting. If Drishyam 3 leans into that quality rather than trying to replicate Khanna’s energy, the film could carve out its own identity within a franchise otherwise defined by repetition.

For audiences, the reaction will likely split along familiar lines. Viewers who came to the franchise for Devgn’s quiet-family-man persona and the puzzle-box plotting will judge the film on whether the mystery still surprises them. Those more invested in performance than plot may find the recalibrated antagonist dynamic the most interesting part of the release, regardless of how familiar the underlying story beats feel.

Studio Perspective

The real tension around Drishyam 3 isn’t Akshaye Khanna’s absence or even the release date. It’s whether a franchise built almost entirely on adaptation can keep generating goodwill once it exhausts the story it was adapting. Two films in, Drishyam succeeded because Jeethu Joseph had already solved the hardest part — the plotting — and Devgn’s version simply needed to translate that structure with conviction, which it did well.

A third film changes the equation. If Drishyam 3 is drawing from further chapters of the original Malayalam universe, the Hindi version inherits a tested story once again, and the casting change becomes the most significant creative variable. If instead the writers are extending the narrative independently, the film is making a much riskier bet — asking audiences to trust original plotting from a team whose reputation was built on adapting someone else’s.

Either way, the franchise’s durability now depends less on shock twists and more on whether it can keep the emotional core — a family’s quiet desperation to protect itself — feeling fresh rather than procedural. That’s a harder task than any casting change, and it’s the one the trailer tour in Goa won’t answer. Only the film itself can.

— Studio CarryOnHarry Editorial Desk

Read more People’s Choice stories on Studio CarryOnHarry. Reporting via Live News Vault.

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Editor's Choice

Bollywood Loses a Titan: Patekar Dies, State Funeral Confirmed

Director Anees Bazmee breaks silence on Nana Patekar’s death, calling it unbearable. Read the full story on India’s cinema legend’s final farewell.

Published

14 hours ago

October 8, 2026

Johal

Bollywood Loses a Titan: Patekar Dies, State Funeral Confirmed

Studio CarryOnHarry Entertainment Desk | 8 October 2026

A Filmmaker’s Grief: Anees Bazmee Speaks From the Heart

Veteran Bollywood director Anees Bazmee has issued a deeply emotional appeal to the media following the sudden passing of legendary actor Nana Patekar on 8 October 2026. In a heartfelt message shared on his official Instagram account, Bazmee admitted he is not yet in a position to speak publicly about the tragedy.

“This is an unbearable loss and an unbearable pain for me and for all of us,” the director wrote, requesting that journalists and well-wishers allow him time to grieve privately. His message resonated across the industry, reflecting the profound bond the two shared over decades in Hindi cinema.

Nana Patekar’s Final Hours: What We Know

The Padma Shri-winning actor reportedly suffered a severe cardiac arrest in the early hours of Thursday at his residence in Dona Paula, Goa. Emergency services rushed him to Manipal Hospital after he was found unresponsive, but despite approximately 45 minutes of CPR efforts by medical personnel, the veteran star could not be revived.

He was officially declared deceased at around 5:20 AM IST. His son, Malhar Patekar, subsequently confirmed the heartbreaking news to the media.

State Funeral Announced by Maharashtra Government

In recognition of Nana Patekar’s extraordinary contribution to Indian cinema, the Maharashtra government has announced that the actor will receive a state funeral with full state honours. His mortal remains are being transported from Goa to Pune, where final rites are scheduled to take place at his farmhouse in Donje.

A Legacy That Transcends Generations

Over a career spanning more than four decades, Nana Patekar built an unrivalled reputation across both Hindi and Marathi cinema. Known for his intense screen presence, raw emotional depth, and unflinching commitment to his craft, he was widely regarded as one of the finest actors India has ever produced.

Recipient of the prestigious Padma Shri, one of India’s highest civilian honours
Celebrated for landmark performances across Hindi and Marathi films
Passed away on 8 October 2026, aged 75, in Dona Paula, Goa
State funeral to be held at his Donje farmhouse near Pune

For the latest tributes and reactions pouring in from across the film fraternity, follow Bollywood’s top stories as the industry comes to terms with this devastating loss.

Industry Mourns: A Moment of National Grief

The outpouring of grief from fellow actors, directors, and fans across India underscores the extraordinary impact Nana Patekar had on generations of cinema lovers. For comprehensive entertainment industry coverage on how Bollywood is responding to this loss, tributes and memorial events are being closely tracked.

Anees Bazmee’s quiet, dignified appeal to the media — itself a testament to a friendship forged through years of creative collaboration — has been widely shared and respected across social platforms today.

– Entertainment Desk, Studio Carry On Harry

—

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Editor's Choice

CSIFF26 Showcases Diverse Caribbean Voices Through Six Nominated Films This October

Conch Shell International Film Festival returns to Queens October 9-11 with six Best Film nominees exploring Caribbean and diaspora filmmaking.

Published

5 days ago

October 4, 2026

Johal

CSIFF26 Showcases Diverse Caribbean Voices Through Six Nominated Films This October

Balle Balle Radio™ Entertainment Desk

The Conch Shell International Film Festival will present six Best Film nominees October 9-11, 2026, with events at Regal UA Midway in Forest Hills, Queens, and panel discussions at HB Playwright Theatre in Manhattan, according to the festival.

Conch Shell Productions operates CSIFF as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization centered on celebrating Caribbean and diaspora filmmaking, with programming that in past years has drawn on films from across Cuba, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Martinique, the UK, and Trinidad, among other places. This year’s Best Film nominees span Havana, Kingston, Brooklyn, London, and Los Angeles, tracing filmmakers who split their lives and their work between a Caribbean homeland and a diaspora city.

"I F*cking Hate You!" comes from Gabriela Paciel, who was born and raised in Havana and based the film on her relationship with her own sister, describing a bond of fighting and fierce loyalty that she’s said she’d give a kidney for, literally. Hanif James’s "A Shade Of Indigo" follows the generational weight of colorism in Jamaica, a theme James traces to his own grandmother’s advice never to marry anyone darker than himself.

Stacey Sargeant wrote, directed, and stars in "Stand Clear ‘The Closing Doors," filmed guerrilla-style on a live subway train in a six-hour shoot, drawing from an actual incident Sargeant witnessed. She’s said she made the film for Black women first, to affirm a right to take up space without apology. Juliette Jeffers’s "Pan Gyul" grew out of her one-woman stage show and, according to Jeffers, is the first professional film to tell a Nevisian story; it has already screened at Cannes and the Pan African Film Festival, where she’s said audiences unfamiliar with Nevis left wanting to visit.

Noella Letitia Mingo’s "Mummy?" is based on her cousin’s life and centers on tragedy and the strength it takes to carry on, a project Mingo has linked to feeling unheard as a Black woman of Guyanese heritage in Britain. Karen Martinez’s "Trinidad Remains" follows a British-born woman who travels to Trinidad to scatter her estranged grandmother’s ashes with her cousin, a trip upended by a stranger’s hold-up that reshapes her sense of the island and herself.

Festival founder and director Magaly Colimon-Christopher said the six films resist any single definition of Caribbean identity, touching on colorism, sisterhood, belonging, grief, and the complicated pull of home, whether the stories are set there or in the diaspora. Full schedule, screening times, and tickets are available through the festival’s website.

Studio CarryOnHarry sees the real draw here less in any one film and more in the range: six directors working in six different registers, from guerrilla subway filmmaking to Cannes-screened steel-pan drama, all competing under one Best Film banner. That’s a wider swing than most regional festivals attempt in a single category, and it’s worth watching which of these six breaks out beyond the festival circuit.

Read more People’s Choice stories on Studio CarryOnHarry. Reporting via Live News Vault.

Press Releases at Studio CarryOnHarry

Prince Johal — Press Release Editor

Prince Johal is the Press Release Editor at Studio CarryOnHarry, handling wire and press-release coverage.

Press Contact: harryjohal@carryonharry.com

This story was drafted with AI assistance and reviewed and approved by the editor before publication. Learn how we use AI.

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Drishyam 3: Can Ajay Devgn’s Franchise Survive Without Its Own Story?

People's Choice

Drishyam 3: Can Ajay Devgn’s Franchise Survive Without Its Own Story?