'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.

Updated on: Sep 21, 2026, 15:13:06 IST

Prefer HTon Google

Share via
Copy link

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 , Abhishek recalls that chaotic week and justifies his decision not to push the shoot forward.

‘No panic but unhappiness’

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)?’”

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’

At that juncture, the film’s director decided not to push the shoot back. “The tough part was the call to continue, to just tell the team: ‘Hold on, don’t cancel anything. We will do it’. Bol to diya par ab karna bhi padega. Likhna bhi tha (I had said it, but now I had to do it and rewrite things). I asked for 2-3 days to figure out if we could achieve it. We were seven days away from the shoot when we were to film his scene with Ajay (Devgn) sir,” he says.

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.

Catch every big hit, every wicket with Crickit, a one stop destination for Live Scores, Match Stats, Infographics & much more. Explore now!.



Get more updates from Bollywood, Taylor Swift, Hollywood, Music and Web Series along with Latest Entertainment News at .

See Less