‘It was in 2000; initial climax had both families meeting over the grave’: Jeethu Joseph on Drishyam’s origin story

Director Jeethu Joseph has opened up about how he developed the story of Drishyam, the 2013 Malayalam blockbuster that went on to become one of Indian cinema’s most celebrated thrillers.

In an interview with Galatta Plus, the filmmaker explained how a casual conversation among friends in 2000 sparked the seed for the film.

“It was in 2000. We were having a gathering with a few friends. A friend of my friend was there, and he was speaking about issues between the two families. There was a boy and a girl, a love affair and the matter reached the police. However, one sentence he said attracted me. He said, both families are right and wrong. I don’t know who to support. So, I started writing on that thought, with a boy and a girl and bringing the love affair in front of families. It was a courtroom drama. Then I realised it would be dry. So, as years passed, I did other movies, and when the issues with mobile misuse and all came up, I introduced that idea to the story. Later, I added the murder part. I basically made the one line in seven years’ time. At that time, there was no police station in the story... One of my associates came up with an interesting character of a C-class movie theatre operator,” Joseph recalled.

The idea of the theatre operator eventually led to the creation of Georgekutty, the now-iconic character played by Mohanlal. Jeethu Joseph said it was his associate’s suggestion that inspired him to weave the theatre operator into the script.

The director also revealed that the original climax was different. “When I finished my script, the climax was like two families eventually meeting each other and standing on top of the grave. I was not happy with that climax. It felt it was a coincidence, that they were standing on top of where he was buried. Around the time, I did a documentary for Janamaithri Police Station. While I was playing shuttle one day, an idea came to me—why not bury the body in a police station? I got goosebumps and went back and rewrote the script by including the police station as a character.”

Drishyam (2013), produced by Antony Perumbavoor under Aashirvad Cinemas, starred Mohanlal, Meena, Ansiba Hassan, Esther Anil, Asha Sharath, Siddique, Kalabhavan Shajohn, Roshan Basheer, and Neeraj Madhav. The film, which follows Georgekutty and his family as they fight to protect themselves after the son of a senior police officer goes missing, was later remade in multiple languages and is hailed as one of the greatest films in Malayalam cinema.

A sequel, Drishyam 2, was released in 2021, and Mohanlal recently confirmed that Drishyam 3 is on the way, announcing it on February 20, 2025.