After numerous remakes in Indian regional languages and a Chinese adaptation, Jeetu Joseph’s ‘Drishyam’ is all set to get a Western adaptation. The 2013 Malayalam film starring Mohanlal, Meena, Ansiba Hassan and Esther Anil in the lead roles will now get an English remake.
Trade analyst Ramesh Bala wrote on X, “The cult franchise #Drishyam is all set to go global after garnering massive success in the India and China markets. Producers Kumar Mangat Pathak and Abhishek Pathak announced the Korean remake of the thriller franchise at the Cannes Film Festival 2023, and now they announce the franchise’s new milestone.” He added, “Panorama Studios have joined hands with Gulfstream Pictures and JOAT Films to make Drishyam in Hollywood, a first for an Indian film!”
Sreedhar Pillai too took on X that the international remake rights have been acquired from the original producers. “Panorama has acquired the international remake rights to Drishyam 1 & 2 from the original producers, Aashirvad Cinemas.”
The original Malayalam film was a huge success and was followed by several remakes. It was remade in 2014 as ‘Drishya’ in Kannada and ‘Drushyam’ in Telugu, with Ravichandran and Venkatesh in the lead roles, respectively. In 2015, it was remade in Tamil as ‘Papanasam’ and in Hindi as ‘Drishyam’ with Kamal Haasan and Ajay Devgn, respectively.
In 2017, it was remade in Sinhala as ‘Dharmayuddhaya’ with Jackson Anthony and in 2019 as ‘Sheep Without a Shepherd’ with Xiao Yang in Mandarin. Different directors took over different languages, with Jeetu only directing the Tamil version. Indonesian and Korean remakes are already in the works.
A sequel of the original, ‘Drishyam 2,’ which was released in 2021, was hailed as a worthy sequel in a rare event. The film picked off where the former left, with Mohanlal’s character Georgekutty and his family dealing with the aftermath of a crime. The sequel was remade in Telugu, Kannada and Hindi also.