Drishyam to be remade in Hollywood

Mar 1, 2024 - 07:40
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Drishyam to be remade in Hollywood

AFTER numerous remakes in Indian languages and a Chinese adaptation, Jeetu Joseph’s Drishyam is all set to take over Hollywood.

The 2013 Malayalam film that starred Mohanlal, Meena, Ansiba Hassan and Esther Anil in the lead roles will now get an English remake, reports the Hindustan Times.

“The cult franchise #Drishyam is all set to go global after garnering massive success in the Indian 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,” wrote trade analyst Ramesh Bala on X, adding, “Panorama Studios have joined hands with Gulfstream Pictures and JOAT Films to make Drishyam in Hollywood, a first for an Indian film! (sic)”

Sreedhar Pillai also shared on X that the international remake rights have been acquired from the original producers, “Panorama Studios has acquired the international remake rights to Drishyam 1 & 2 from the original producers, Aashirvad Cinemas.”

Drishyam franchise

When the Malayalam film was released in 2013, it was massively successful with other filmmakers vying for remake rights. In 2014, the film was remade in Kannada as Drishya and in Telugu as Drushyam 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 Chinese. Different directors took over different languages, with Jeetu only directing the Tamil version. Indonesian and Korean remakes are already in the works.

The sequel

In a rarity, Drishyam 2, which was released in 2021, was hailed as a worthy sequel to the 2013 film. The film picked off where the former left off, with Mohanlal’s character Georgekutty and his family dealing with the aftermath of a crime. The sequel was remade in Telugu, Kannada and Hindi.