‘Drishyam: The Conclusion’ to Take Vijay Into Darker Territory, Says Abhishek Pathak: ‘He Has Not Faced Such A Character’ (EXCLUSIVE)

After two films built around Vijay Salgaonkar staying several steps ahead of the police, “Drishyam: The Conclusion” will take the character into darker territory. Director Abhishek Pathak tells Variety India that the final chapter is designed to answer some of the questions left unresolved in the previous instalment while pushing Vijay into situations audiences have not seen him navigate before.

“Whenever Vijay does something, he opens up two more questions. I think those were the two unanswered questions we felt remained. That’s the whole idea we wanted to take the character ahead — where he’s going to solve a few questions that he left unanswered in Part Two,” Pathak says.

While Vijay’s ability to stay ahead of the police remains central to the franchise, Pathak says the character’s evolution in the final chapter will be defined by greater intensity and a darker side to his world. The film, he adds, will show Vijay doing things differently from what audiences have seen in the first two films.

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“I think that’s what people will also want to enjoy in the final chapter — seeing how he’s going to do what he does brilliantly in this franchise. So we’re taking the character a couple of notches up in terms of his intensity and the darker side of this world,” he says. “What he’s been doing in Part One and Part Two, the conclusion will be a little different from what he’s been doing. That’s how we evolved the character.”

At the heart of that evolution is Vijay’s determination to protect his family, even as the lengths he is willing to go to become increasingly significant to the story. “The audience will see how far he’s gone this way to just do one thing which he wants to do, which is saving his family,” Pathak says.

The conflict also expands with the arrival of Jaideep Ahlawat and Prakash Raj, who bring two distinctly different challenges into Vijay’s world. Ahlawat plays an SP Crime Branch officer, marking a new kind of adversary for Vijay in the franchise.

“Jaideep is playing SP Crime Branch, who is a new entrant in the film, and it’s a new playground. I don’t think any of the characters we’ve seen before in the film have seen this kind of playground,” Pathak says. He describes Ahlawat’s character as “more brutal” and “more raw,” adding that the role brings elements into the “Drishyam” world that audiences have not encountered in the earlier films.

For Pathak, the casting also allows the film to explore what happens when Vijay comes up against an opponent who operates differently from the police officers he has previously faced. “Vijay has not faced such a kind of character in any of the parts right now. So I think that dynamic of Vijay facing Jaideep’s character would be very interesting,” he says.

Prakash Raj, meanwhile, enters the story from a different angle. He plays a sophisticated lawyer, bringing another layer to the film’s central battle of wits. Pathak says the idea was to place an actor of Raj’s calibre opposite Vijay in a conflict where the weapon is not necessarily brute force, but the ability to manipulate the narrative.

“To bring a very sophisticated, sorted-out lawyer against Vijay Salgaonkar was something very interesting we wanted to do,” Pathak says. “Because the film is all about the mind game. When Prakash comes in as a lawyer to play that mind game and twist the whole narrative of the film to just put him behind bars, how will Vijay tackle it or not tackle it? We wanted someone like him to play the role.”

Together, Ahlawat and Raj allow “Drishyam: The Conclusion” to place Vijay against two very different forms of opposition: an aggressive Crime Branch officer and a calculated lawyer capable of challenging him through the law and the narrative surrounding his case. “Both of them have added a very interesting dynamic to the whole Vijay’s world, which is going to be fun to watch,” Pathak says.