Drishyam 3 writers tried 15-20 endings before the final twist

Drishyam 3: The Conclusion has crossed the Rs 500 crore mark worldwide, but the bigger twist may be what it took to finish the script. Co-writer Aamil Keeyan Khan has revealed that the team wrote around 100 drafts for some scenes and tried 15-20 versions of the ending before locking the one audiences saw.

By Day 12, the Hindi thriller’s domestic net collection stood at Rs 323.50 crore and its India gross at Rs 387.80 crore, with the overseas run taking the film past the global milestone. That commercial result is another high point for the franchise led by Ajay Devgn, Tabu and Jaideep Ahlawat.

A seven-day sprint after Akshaye Khanna’s exit

The original Hindi story, developed by director Abhishek Pathak and his writing team, created pressure the earlier films did not have. The first two Hindi instalments were based on the Malayalam franchise, but the third had to be built fresh for an audience that already knew the game.

When Akshaye Khanna exited a week before filming, the team had seven days to rework the screenplay and fit Ahlawat’s new character into the story. Khan said the writers wrote around 100 drafts for some scenes and scrapped large portions while production stayed on track.

The challenge was not just about time. Ahlawat’s character had to be woven into the family’s long-running secret without making the new equations feel convenient, so the writers revisited scenes until the character felt like part of the story rather than a late replacement.

“We wrote 100 drafts for some scenes. We even had 15-20 versions of the ending.”

— Aamil Keeyan Khan, co-writer

The question that kept Vijay familiar

The writers also had to decide how dark Ajay Devgn’s Vijay Salgaonkar could become. Khan said several drafts pushed Vijay into much darker territory before the team pulled the character back.

They kept returning to one question: “Is that really Vijay?” The moral centre of the franchise, he explained, is that Vijay does the wrong thing for the right cause, and going completely dark would have broken the character fans have followed across three films.

“Vijay is doing the wrong thing for the right cause.”

— Aamil Keeyan Khan, co-writer

Why the rewrite mattered

For viewers, the reveal is the whole game in a Drishyam film. The first two parts trained fans to look for the twist. An original third chapter had to work harder: it could not lean on a proven Malayalam template, and it could not repeat its own tricks without losing the audience.

The writing room’s approach is a useful reminder for anyone building on a beloved story: the ending must respect the character before it surprises the fan.

• 100 drafts: some scenes were rewritten far beyond a typical polish.
• 15-20 endings: the climax was stress-tested against audience expectations.
• 7 days: the post-exit rewrite had to keep production moving without killing suspense.

Khan also credited Ajay Devgn for backing the team through every revision. Devgn heard the first draft in April 2025 and stayed supportive through the long process, which gave the writers room to keep refining the climax instead of settling early.

The Rs 500 crore milestone is the clearest sign that the original Hindi conclusion could still pull its audience. For a franchise built on meticulously planned reveals, the box office is a vote of confidence in the new ending.

Source: The Times of India