The box office performance of Drishyam 2 has been phenomenal. In India, the movie has made 65 crore net in its first three days, outpacing every other Bollywood release this year, with the exception of Brahmastra, in terms of opening weekend box office receipts. Abhishek Pathak, the film’s director, discusses the journey and the movie’s cultural impact on the Hindi-speaking audience. This is his feature film directorial debut.
The box office performance of Drishyam 2 has been phenomenal. In India, the movie has made 65 crore net in its first three days, outpacing every other Bollywood release this year, with the exception of Brahmastra, in terms of opening weekend box office receipts. Abhishek Pathak, the film’s director, discusses the journey and the movie’s cultural impact on the Hindi-speaking audience. This is his feature film directorial debut.
The script for Drishyam 2 in Hindi has undergone considerable alterations, and new characters and themes have been included that weren’t present in the Malayalam version. Abhishek explains his decision by stating, “There is no use in doing a frame-by-frame reproduction. If you do that, you are not acting in your capacity as a director. You must present your vision to the group. People will also discuss whether it is a copy if that fact is present. By word of mouth, it will spread and shrink your audience. Why would you decide to take a gamble like that?
However, the director acknowledges that any such modification must be thoroughly thought out in order to prevent losing the essence of the original. He explains, “The objective is to not harm anything. You always mark out things you don’t want to touch when you start rewriting something. You see, there’s no purpose in changing the fact that we own the rights to something we adore. We must adhere to the core of the movie, which includes its twists and turns. However, the script might be altered. Hindi and Malayalam films differ slightly from one another. Also diverse are the target audiences. We so require that change. Therefore, rewriting the screenplay for a remake is crucial, but you must be careful.
The popularity of Drishyam 2 comes at a time when there is a general belief in the film industry that remakes don’t work. Both agreeing and disagreeing with such idea, according to Abhishek. “I agree and disagree both,” he says. I disagree that remakes are ineffective. However, you do reduce your audience if the original is available on OTT in your language. That unquestionably hurt several recently released movies. However, I don’t believe that remakes will ever stop happening. Some stories are intended for specific audiences. And I don’t believe there should be a problem if there is a chance to tell that wonderful story again to a different, larger audience.
Abhishek says, “Without us doing anything, every year on October 2, there are memes about Vijay Salgaonkar and his family. It’s fun. Mohanlal sir is a great actor, a very established actor but the Hindi audiences relate Drishyam somewhere more with Vijay Salgaonkar and Ajay Devgn. And even though the Malayalam sequel was out, many people didn’t watch it as they wanted to see the Hindi version first. That is because they relate so much with Ajay sir. The Malayalam Drishyam is a brilliant film but they somewhere chose to hold on till the Hindi version was released.”