'Ye kya tareeka hua': Abhishek Pathak recalls Drishyam 3's race against time as Akshaye Khanna quit 7 days before shoot

Akshaye Khanna walked out of Drishyam 3 just a week before the shoot. But the team replaced him and began filming on time. Director Abhishek Pathak recalls how.

The official announcements had been made. The stage was set. Drishyam, the Hindi version, was set to return for a third and final part. But just days before filming was to begin, Akshaye Khanna exited the production. What happened between him and the makers remains a subject of speculation. But for writer-director Abhishek Pathak, it was a critical moment. Somehow, he and the team managed not only to find a replacement for Akshaye but also to rewrite the script and get it all ready in time. In a conversation with Hindustan Times, Abhishek recalls that chaotic week and justifies his decision not to push the shoot forward.

‘No panic but unhappiness’

Akshaye Khanna starred alongside Ajay Devgn in Drishyam 2.

In December 2025, news emerged that Akshaye had left the film due to creative and monetary disagreements with the makers. The film was supposed to begin filming a week later, after Christmas. Abhishek says that while there was no panic, the film’s team was unhappy with how it all played out. “I won’t say panic, but we were not happy with the whole idea. I thought, ‘Ye kya tareeka hua (What is this)?’”

Akshaye Khanna played IG Tarun Ahlawat in Drishyam 2.

Jaideep Ahlawat was roped in as the replacement in just a couple of days. Abhishek rewrote parts of the script to accommodate the new character he would play. “He was kind of replacing a character that had been liked by the audience. I called him, and he asked me, ‘Casting change or character change?’ I told him I am changing the character. Then, he read it and found it fun. All that happened within 5-6 days,” the filmmaker recalls.

‘Don’t cancel anything’

Jaideep Ahlawat plays Rajveer Singh Tomar, an IPS officer, in Drishyam The Conclusion.

Abhishek says the reason he didn't cancel the shoot was that over 200 people were dependent on him and the film. “Set lag chuka tha (The set had been erected). We couldn’t cancel. There are so many people depending upon us to earn money. They have not taken any other jobs at this time. Everyone from the DOP to the production designers had locked their dates. People like light assistants and spot boys earn per day, and that would have all gone for a toss. That is not cool. Then, the dates we had were with combinations of so many actors. These are all big actors. I can’t suddenly tell them to give me dates later. They have other big films lined up, and those directors won’t leave those dates for me. So, we took that call,” he explains.

‘It was a challenge for Jaideep’

Abhishek says that he knew Jaideep Ahlawat only socially. “His first film, Aakrosh, was produced by dad (producer Kumar Mangat Pathak). We had met a few times,” he says. But the filmmaker admits that it was an equally daunting task for the actor to come on board on such short notice. He explains, “To come at the last minute and blend into the character is something. It wasn’t as if he had six months to prepare and do workshops. He had a few days. We did two readings before I left for my shoot, and then he came 1-2 days before his shoot was supposed to start. He asked a few questions and read the script. He had a look test in Mumbai. We both leaned on each other because it was all so last-minute. For him, it was a challenge entering a journey he wasn’t a part of earlier. For him to come and become a part of the film was challenging, but he did it beautifully.”

Jaideep’s intro scene was shot in Goa and later reshot in Mumbai because Abhishek felt it wasn’t landing well. “It was last-minute writing, and I felt it could be better.” The filmmaker says Jaideep gave him the space to take these calls.

“That last-minute pressure made the character beautiful. When you are under pressure, particularly for a franchise like Drishyam, where you have to meet certain benchmarks, it was a challenge,” the filmmaker adds.

All about Drishyam: The Conclusion

Officially titled Drishyam: The Conclusion, the third part of the franchise brings back Ajay Devgn’s Vijay Salgaonkar, along with Tabu, Shriya Saran, Rajat Kapoor, Ishita Dutta, Mrunal Jadhav, and Kamlesh Sawant. Apart from Jaideep, the other new entrants in the cast are Prakash Raj and Saurabh Shukla. The film releases in theatres on October 2, 2026.