2015 Film Drishyam

A remake of the 2013 Malayalam film of the same name, it stars Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Shriya Saran, Ishita Dutta, Mrunal Jadhav and Rajat Kapoor in lead roles. It was released on 31 July 2015 and emerged as a critical and commercial success, earning over ₹111 crores worldwide. A sequel titled Drishyam 2 was released in 2022. Later in 2022, the film was released in China, earning $4.05 million pushing its worldwide total over ₹147 crores.

Drishyam
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Nishikant Kamat
Written by	Upendra Sidhaye
Story by	Jeethu Joseph
Based on	Drishyam by Jeethu Joseph
Produced by	Kumar Mangat Pathak Abhishek Pathak Ajit Andhare
Starring	Ajay Devgn Tabu Shriya Saran Ishita Dutta Mrunal Jadhav Rajat Kapoor
Cinematography	Avinash Arun
Edited by	Aarif Sheikh
Music by	Songs: Vishal Bhardwaj Score: Sameer Phaterpekar
Production company	Panorama Studios
Distributed by	Viacom18 Motion Pictures
Release date	31 July 2015 (2015-07-31)
Running time	160 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	₹38 crore
Box office	est. ₹147 crore

Vijay Salgaonkar is an orphan who dropped out of school at the fourth grade. He then becomes a businessman , running a cable TV service in Goa. He is married to Nandini and has two daughters; Anju, his adopted elder daughter and Anu, his youngest daughter. His only interest, apart from his family, is watching films.

During a nature camp, a nude video of Anju gets recorded. The culprit, Sameer ''Sam'' Deshmukh, is the son of the Inspector-general of police Meera Deshmukh. When Sam meets Anju, he tries to blackmail her for sexual favors. The same night, he turns up at her house and when Nandini arrives, she pleads with him to delete the video. Nandini pleads Sam to leave Anju alone; he agrees on the condition that Nandini have sex with him. Anju strikes Sam with a rod, which accidentally hits him in the head, instantly killing him. Anju and Nandini bury Sam's dead body in a compost pit, which is seen by Anu. The next morning, when Vijay comes home, he is informed of the incident by Nandini and he devises a way to save his family from the police. He removes Sam's broken phone and disposes of his car, which is seen by Sub-inspector Laxmikant Gaitonde, who has a grudge against Vijay. The next day, Vijay takes his family out on a trip to attend a religious sermon in Panaji.

Meera, realizing that her son has gone missing, starts an investigation. She begins to suspect Vijay and his family and they are called in for questioning. Having predicted that this would happen, Vijay coaches his family on how to change their alibis. When questioned individually, the family stick to their alibis. Meera questions the owners of the establishments that Vijay had met during his trip. Their statements prove Vijay's alibi. Meera deduces that Vijay had gotten acquainted with the owners, and manipulated them into lying.

Meera arrests the family and Gaitonde uses force to beat the truth out of them. Meera learns about the video that Sam made about Anju from Sam's friend Alex. After Gaitonde thrashes Anu, she discloses the truth. Anu reveals that she saw Anju and Nandini bury Sam's body in a compost pit. The police dig up the compost pit, only to find the remains of a calf. Vijay protests to the crowd that Gaitonde had thrashed Anu. Gaitonde attempts to attack Vijay, but is stopped by an angry mob who thrash him.

Following the incident, Gaitonde is suspended and Meera resigns. Meera and her husband, Mahesh summon Vijay where they ask for his forgiveness over Sam's perverted behavior. They also reveal that they are going to live with Meera's brother in London. They ask Vijay to disclose the truth behind their Sam's disappearance, to which he reveals to indirectly killing him. He reveals that he would go to any lengths to protect his family and asks them for forgiveness.

In the present, Vijay is called to sign a register at the police station. While signing the register, the police inspector tells Vijay that the police are not fools and promises to one day find the body. Vijay replies by telling the officer that he respects the police and believes that the police will always be there to help the people. As he walks out of the station, flashbacks are shown of Vijay walking out of an unfinished police station, implying that he buried Sam's body beneath the police station.

Casting

In October 2014, it was announced that Saif Ali Khan would take the lead role and reprise the role played by Mohanlal in the 2013 Malayalam predecessor. There were also reports that Akshay Kumar will take up the lead, but in November 2014, it was announced that Ajay Devgn would star in the Hindi remake of the 2013 film Drishyam, which will be produced by Viacom 18 Motion Pictures in association with Panorama Studios and directed by Nishikant Kamat. Plans then were to have Devgn reprise the role played by Mohanlal in the 2013 film. Later it was announced that Tabu will be playing the role of Meera Deshmukh a cop and Shriya Saran will play the wife of Ajay Devgn's character.

Filming

Principal photography for the film was slated to begin in February 2015. Ajit Andhare, the chief operating officer of Viacom 18 Motion Pictures stated "Drishyam is an iconic film that leaves you spellbound and intrigued long after you have watched it. Its box office record in Malayalam & Telugu speaks for itself." Actor Ajay Devgn had been in Canada to shoot snow scenes for his upcoming film Shivaay, but light snow conditions had him reschedule that film and return to India to instead begin Drishyam. The First 20 Day Shooting schedule of the film began on 13 March 2015 in Goa and ended on 1 April 2015. The second schedule of the film began in 2nd week of April. The first look of the film was unveiled on 29 May 2015.

Legal issues

On the announcement of the Hindi remake, film producer Ekta Kapoor sent a legal notice to the Malayalam filmmakers. Ekta Kapoor acquired the movie rights of Japanese author Keigo Higashino's book, The Devotion of Suspect X, and her legal team claimed that Drishyam is a film adaptation of the novel, for which they purchased rights. However, the original Drishyam director and screenwriter Jeethu Joseph, denied that his film is an adaptation or copy of the Japanese novel and film. Commentator Nandini Ramnath noted how the denial of even slight inspiration by the Japanese novel is parallel to the inside movie storyline as "Jeethu Joseph's achievement lies in lifting an intelligent concept and localising it so effectively that the links (to the Japanese novel) appear tenuous unless closely investigated. Drishyam is the perfect crime about a perfect crime, and its director's alibi is almost as airtight as the one Ishigami creates for Yasuko and Misato."

Drishyam was declared tax free in Uttar Pradesh.

The music for Drishyam is composed by Vishal Bhardwaj with lyrics written by Gulzar. A song titled "Carbon Copy", which was sung by Ash King, was released on 7 July 2015. The music rights for Drishyam are acquired by Zee Music Company.

Drishyam was released on 31 July 2015 on 2,365 screens in India.

Critical reception

Meena Iyer of The Times of India gave the film four out of five stars, describing it as "A suspense drama with a nail-biting finish." Iyer criticized the casting choices for some of the Salgaonkar family, but praised Devgn and Tabu's performances, "Ajay, who is the prey here, shines in his role of the protective father ... Tabu [is] outstanding as his predator." The Indian Express, however, gave the remake two and a half out of five stars and found fault with the chemistry between Devgn and Shriya Saran, who plays his character's wife. Indian Express described Devgan's performance as "stilted" and Tabu's performance as "off-and-on", commenting that she sometimes comes off as stiff.

Rohit Vats of Hindustan Times rated the film three and a half out of five stars, describing it as "Stunning, gripping, edge-of-the-seat, shocking, engrossing". Vats praised the film for being successful as a suspense thriller.

Raja Sen of Rediff gave the film a rating of two and a half out of five stars, noting the pace of the film begins "far too snoozily". Sen described Tabu's character as Inspector General Nair as a "badass superstar", but overall felt "the film is clumsily written, with dialogue that sounds wooden. Contrarily, Bollywood Hungama gave the film four out of five stars and didn't notice the same pacing and script problems as Sen. "There is no single moment in the film suffers a lag ... As for the taut screenplay (Upendra Sidhye), it keeps on playing with your mind all the time. You know what happened but even then you are taken for a ride and start believing in it."

Martin D'Souza of Glamsham gave it four out of five stars and stated "Drishyam is a spot-on crime thriller that has some 'heart-in-your-mouth' moments. It's set up in a made-up village called Pondolim in North Goa. What's satisfying about the entire screenplay is that what Vijay is doing on screen is what you will do for your family. Nothing less; after all, family is all that we have!"

Subhash .K. Jha gave it four and a half out of five stars and stated "Nishikant Kamat's Drishyam is an outright winner. It is a remarkably resonant remake and a unique stand-alone experience."

Suchitra Bajpai Chaudhary of Gulf News gave it four and a half out of five stars and stated "There are no loose ends in the plot; every character, every situation is well planned and visualised to perfection. The background score is evocative though a song highlighting the trauma of the characters seemed eminently forgettable."

The Free Press Journal (FPJ Bureau) Said, "The climax is just awesome and worth watching and waiting for. Performance-wise, Ajay is very good, as is Tabu. Shriya and the daughters have also acted brilliantly and did justice to their characters. The film's direction and screenplay are very good, while the music is okay. I would say, the movie is must watch."

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 80% of critics had given the film a positive review based on 15 reviews, with an average rating of 6.5/10.

Box office

By the end of its first week, Drishyam had grossed approximately ₹463 million (US$5.8 million). The movie grossed ₹629 million (US$7.9 million) in 13 days at the domestic box office. By the end of its second week, the film had grossed about ₹64.17 crore (US$8.0 million). By the end of its third weekend, the film had grossed about ₹687 million (US$8.6 million). By the end of its fifth week, the film had grossed about ₹757 million (US$9.5 million). By the end of its sixth week, the film had grossed about ₹765 million (US$9.6 million). It attained a total gross of ₹91.97 crore (US$12 million) (India) in the Indian box office by the end of its run. Internationally, the film collected ₹155 million (US$1.9 million) in seven weeks and reached a combined worldwide total gross of ₹1.1 billion (US$14 million).

In 2022 film was released in China earning 30k USD on day 1 and total $4.05 million in lifetime run making total worldwide total gross of ₹1.47 billion.

Following the success of the original Malayalam film Drishyam 2, Panorama Studios acquired the remake rights for the film in May 2021. Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Shriya Saran, Ishita Dutta, Mrunal Jadhav and Rajat Kapoor, reprise their roles.