The Rs 400 crore milestone
Drishyam 3: The Conclusion has crossed the Rs 300 crore worldwide mark in four days and has now entered the Rs 400 crore club, according to News18. For Shriya Saran, the film is now her highest-grossing Hindi release; the 2015 Drishyam was her first major commercial blockbuster in Bollywood.
The franchise therefore bookends her Hindi career: a breakout hit in 2015 and a career-best gross now. Saran, though, says she never viewed the series as a cushion.
No remake, no safety net
Speaking to News18, Saran said the third film was a genuine risk. It is not a remake and has no connect to the Malayalam original, and there was “no safety net” from a proven source script. She credited director Abhishek Pathak for taking risks, particularly the film’s reliance on silence.
- The film is an original script, not a remake of the Malayalam Drishyam.
- Ajay Devgn has only 16 dialogues, and Saran says she has even fewer.
- The last 20-30 minutes and word of mouth carried the theatrical run.
Saran recalled that even Drishyam 2 arrived during Covid, when footfalls were uncertain. Audiences came for RRR, she said, but that was a larger-than-life film; Drishyam 2 worked because of a tight script and word of mouth, not because the franchise guaranteed an audience.
The age-gap question
The other recurring question is casting. Saran, 44, plays mother to Ishita Dutta, who is eight years younger. She told News18 the pairing initially did not make sense to her: “It doesn’t make sense. I did think about it.” But the film explains the relationship through adoption, which she says is “so beautifully explained.”
She also noted that Hindi cinema regularly typecasts women actors in mother roles opposite actors close to their own age. In this case, the script’s adoption backstory turns a potential distraction into a story point. Over a decade, her equation with Dutta has moved from early career conversations to marriage, children and school details, since their children are almost the same age.
The result matters beyond the franchise. Hindi sequels often lean on remakes or established source material; Drishyam 3 is an original close to a much-loved story. That it has reached Rs 400 crore on word of mouth suggests audiences are willing to follow a quiet, tense procedural when the payoff works.
Source: News18
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