Akshaye Khanna’s abrupt exit from Drishyam 3 appears to have given the makers a serious last-minute headache. Abhishek Pathak, director, has revealed just how close they were to the film’s shoot when the actor walked out. Akshaye, who had played the intelligent cop in Drishyam 2, reportedly exited only about a week before filming was scheduled to begin.
Abhishek recalled that the team did not exactly panic, but they were certainly unhappy with how the situation unfolded. The timing was particularly difficult because the team was just seven days away from shooting an important sequence involving Ajay Devgn.
The sets were ready, crew members had been lined up and actors’ dates had already been locked. This made a postponement extremely complicated. Abhishek Pathak ultimately decided that the show had to go on.
That meant rewriting portions of the screenplay that had originally been developed with Akshaye’s character in mind, while simultaneously finding a way forward with the new casting. According to Abhishek, the entire process of bringing Jaideep Ahlawat on board and reworking the material happened within roughly five to six days.
The exit had already sparked speculation over Akshaye Khanna’s look, compensation and creative disagreements, though the makers’ accounts have varied on the exact circumstances. What is clear is that Drishyam 3 had to undergo a frantic rewrite just days before cameras rolled.
