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Dubai: Abhishek Pathak wants the film industry to make it harder for actors to walk away from a project once contracts are signed.
The director, writer and producer of Drishyam 3 was left with seven days to rewrite a major character after Akshaye Khanna exited the film in December, days before shooting was due to begin. He has now spoken about what that week cost, and why he believes the industry needs a rule to prevent it happening again.
Drishyam 3 releases in cinemas on 2 October.
‘I cannot say I can’t do it’
Pathak has said that a director without his producing role might have handled it differently.
“Maybe an independent director on the film would have stepped back and said, ‘I can’t do it, I need some time, I might have to push the shoot’. There are actors involved, there’s a set which got constructed,” he told PTI.
Wearing three hats left him nowhere to hide. “For me, there was a different kind of pressure, I cannot say, ‘I can’t do it. It’s so much pressure, stress, I can’t handle it’. But I told my team, ‘We’ve to do it, otherwise the film will get delayed, there are dates of actors which we’ve and once that goes away, it might get pushed’.”
Speaking to Hindustan Times, he described the moment more bluntly. “I won’t say panic, but we were not happy with the whole idea. I thought, ‘Ye kya tareeka hua?'”, a phrase that translates as “What kind of way is this?”
The people who get hurt
The part of his argument that has drawn the most attention is about crew, not stars.
Pathak pointed out that many people on a film set earn between Rs2,000 and Rs3,000 a day, roughly Dh84 to Dh126, and plan their lives around confirmed schedules.
“Suddenly you put their life at risk because they have planned their life accordingly,” he said. “I think there has to be a certain rule about it where you cannot just step out once you wish because you didn’t feel right about something. So, it’s more about a solution has to come together, figure out a plan, a law, a rule.”
More than 200 people were dependent on the shoot going ahead, he told Hindustan Times, from the cinematographer and production designers down to light assistants and spot boys paid by the day.
“Set lag chuka tha. We couldn’t cancel,” he said, using a Hindi phrase meaning the set had already been built.
‘You cannot start creative discussions after taking payment’
His wider point is about sequencing.
“When you already have a creatively locked discussion, you’ve an agreement in place, you’re doing a couple of readings and you don’t think about this and suddenly one day someone can get up and say, ‘I don’t feel like this because this is my reason’ whatever the reason may be,” he said.
Creative differences should be resolved through discussion, he argued, and before money changes hands. “You cannot start doing creative discussion after taking the payment and getting the contract signed. So, that’s something which happened in a couple of films and even mine.”
He said a producer technically has the option to stop a shoot, but that the consequences land on everyone else. “It’s not about just a film, it’s about so many livelihoods, it’s problematic.”
Rewriting the character in days
Rather than recast the role, Pathak rewrote it.
“I didn’t want a new actor coming on board and trying to do what some other actor has done. So, I told my team, let’s rewrite the character completely and it was challenging. But at the same time, it’s fun because a new playground is given and you’ve to make this character stand out, you’ve to take the character two notches up and give a stronger element to it,” he said.
Jaideep Ahlawat came on board within days, and his first question set the direction. “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,” Pathak told Hindustan Times.
Ahlawat, known for Paatal Lok, Jaane Jaan and Three of Us, plays SP Crime Branch Rajveer Singh Tomar, who pursues Vijay Salgaonkar and his family. Pathak has also praised how quickly he adapted, noting he had days rather than months to prepare.
The dispute behind it
Khanna played IG Tarun Ahlawat in Drishyam 2, and his departure from the third film has been contested publicly.
Producer Kumar Mangat Pathak, the director’s father, has said the actor was narrated the script, signed an agreement and was paid a signing amount, before pulling out by text message ahead of the release of Dhurandhar. He has sent Khanna a legal notice for breach of agreement, and alleged that the fallout began over a request to wear a wig, which was refused for continuity reasons.
Those are the producer’s claims. Khanna has not publicly responded.
About Drishyam 3
Presented by Star Studio18 and produced by Alok Jain, Ajit Andhare, Kumar Mangat Pathak and Abhishek Pathak, the film is billed as the final chapter of the Hindi franchise.
Ajay Devgn returns as Vijay Salgaonkar, with Shriya Saran as Nandini, Ishita Dutta as Anju, Tabu as Meera Deshmukh and Rajat Kapoor as Mahesh Deshmukh. Prakash Raj has also joined the cast in a newly written role.
