Jeethu Joseph’s Mohanlal-starrer Drishyam to get a Korean version

A decade ago, when director Jeethu Joseph’s crime thriller Drishyam came out, it not only received critical acclaim, but also did well at the box office. A highly feted film in the award season that followed, including wins at the Kerala State Film Awards, Drishyam had Mohanlal in the lead, as Georgekutty, a father of two, who is hell-bent on protecting his family at any cost when the finger of suspicion in the case of a missing boy points at them. The film revolved around Georgekutty creating and sticking by the perfect alibi for the family around the time the boy goes missing. The film also starred Meena, Siddique, Asha Sharath, Kalabhavan Shajon, among others, in pivotal roles.

The film, though, had its fair share of criticism too, after it was pointed out that the script seemed adapted from the Japanese novel by Keigo Higashino, The Devotion of Suspect X, which followed a single man, who goes to extreme lengths to cover up a murder committed by his neighbour and her daughter. Jeethu, though, has repeatedly claimed that his film was not a copy or adaptation, even though, both the novel and the film were about the alibi and not the murder.

After its runaway success, Drishyam was remade in Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Sinhalese and Chinese, and, according to the latest, it is set to get a Korean version as well. Kim Jee-Woon, Song Kang-Ho’s Anthology Studios is teaming up with India’s Panorama, which produced the Hindi version of Drishyam, for the Korean remake, making Jeethu’s film, the most remade movie in India. Cobweb director Kim Jee-woon and Parasite star Song Kang-ho will remake all three instalments in the Drishyam franchise. The third film is not in production yet, but reports suggest that the Malayalam original and the Hindi remake will be shot simultaneously.