Ajay Devgn on ‘Drishyam: The Conclusion’: Why Vijay Salgaonkar will cross any line for family, and all about Mohanlal’s verdict

Dubai: “Everybody in this world is an underdog.”

Indian actor Ajay Devgn, who was in Dubai this weekend, may have just distilled the enduring appeal of Drishyam and his wily, morally slippery family man Vijay Salgaonkar act into seven words.

For two films (both super-hits), Vijay has convinced us that a seemingly ordinary man who's high-school drop out can outwit the system, bend the truth and cross almost every moral line in the name of protecting his family and still have us firmly in his corner.

“Everybody in the audience is convinced that I am this classic underdog. If I was in this situation where I had to save my family, I might do the same,’” said Devgn.

“When you connect with that character, that he's one of me and he's doing it, it's an inspiration.”

And now, with Drishyam: The Conclusion, Devgn and the makers are taking a gamble of their own.

The Hindi franchise has chosen not to simply follow the path laid out by its Malayalam counterpart. Instead, its makers developed a story of their own; a decision Devgn says came after both teams heard what the other had in mind and realised that each version could work differently for its audience.

I told Devgn that I was particularly intrigued by that choice. Having watched the Malayalam film, I wasn't entirely convinced by where its final chapter went. So the Hindi Drishyam breaking away from the established template felt both refreshing and risky.

But Devgn doesn't dress it up as some grand act of cinematic rebellion.

“Honestly speaking, they had not decided to make a third one,” he said. “We were toying with the idea and I think all the writers worked out some ideas and they didn't work. And finally, things fell into place.”

Once they found the story they wanted to tell, however, the confidence was there.

“We were very confident about our script. So then we decided that we will go ahead.”

That confidence feels particularly appropriate for a franchise built around a man whose greatest weapon has always been exactly that: knowing his next move when everyone else is still trying to figure out his last one.

Why the Hindi ‘Drishyam’ went its own way

Devgn says the Hindi and Malayalam teams actually compared what they were developing before deciding to proceed with different stories.

“We spoke to them and we were like, ‘Let's make it, we have a script.’ And then they said that they're also working on something and they had a script. So we thought, let's hear each other out and decide what to do.”

What emerged wasn't a question of one story being better than the other, he says, but of what worked for their respective audiences.

“Finally we came to the conclusion that this is a fabulous script, but it is most suited for their audience. And we were very confident about our script. So then we decided that we will go ahead.”

It was undoubtedly the riskier option. Drishyam came to Hindi cinema as an adaptation of the acclaimed Malayalam thriller starring Mohanlal, and comparisons between the two versions have been inevitable ever since.

But Devgn believes creative confidence comes when the material itself is strong enough.

“When you work hard and then, you know, you get something which is, like, to the point, then you're confident enough to make it the way you want to make it.”

A good man doing terrible things?

For me, the most fascinating part of Vijay Salgaonkar has never simply been whether he gets caught.

It's what the films persuade us to forgive.

Is Vijay a good man doing terrible things because circumstances have pushed him there? Or is he a criminal mastermind whose motives happen to make us comfortable with his actions?

I put that question to Devgn.

“You are pushing the boundaries because you are pushed to push the boundaries,” he said.

For Devgn, the moral equation begins with Vijay's conviction that his family acted to protect themselves.

“When you know that your family is right and they have done nothing wrong, and things are not fair, I think our characters — or anyone in this world, any father or any mother — would go to that length to protect.”

And once someone threatens that family again, he believes the instinct to protect takes over.

“When you think that your child and your family was completely right in protecting themselves, and now they have come after you, I think you will do anything to protect.”

It's an intriguing answer because Vijay doesn't simply react. He strategises.

This is a man with limited formal education who has essentially educated himself through the movies he obsessively watches and then uses that knowledge to take on people with considerably more institutional power.

Devgn believes that's part of the fun.

“He has educated himself in crime films and things like this. So that's the fun. You know, the underdog is beating all the heavyweights.”

And perhaps that's why Vijay's morally questionable behaviour rarely stops audiences from rooting for him.

I admitted to Devgn that while watching Drishyam, I often find myself enthusiastically cheerleading Vijay before wondering if the film has somehow made me morally bankrupt. And then you remember precisely what you're cheering him on to do.

Devgn sees that audience identification differently.

“Here, it's a film. So the audience is convinced that he's right,” he said. “But if people know that you are right, then they stand by you anywhere in the world.”

“You see these protests and things like this. They're only because they believe in that one person or something. That's why so many people come together.”

Why Devgn won't comment without knowing the facts

When our conversation veered towards contemporary protests, Devgn was careful not to offer a convenient celebrity sound bite.

“I would not want to comment on anything which I am not detailedly aware of,” he said.

His reluctance stems partly from the sheer volume of information now available and the difficulty of knowing what to trust.

“News always deviates from truth also sometimes. And there's so much on the internet. I'm not talking about just news channels. So you don't really know what to believe and what not to believe.”

It's a theme that came up again when we spoke about another occupational hazard of being an actor today: seemingly everyone with a social-media account can become a film critic.

‘Every person is a critic’

I've interviewed Devgn several times over the years, and during one of our earlier conversations he gave me a characteristically irreverent assessment of film critics, a line that stayed with me long after that interview.

I reminded him of it.

But even Devgn acknowledges that the ecosystem surrounding movie criticism has changed dramatically.

“There are genuine critics,” Devgn said. “There are people who — it is their job to do it — and they have educated themselves, maybe through watching films or maybe by educating themselves and things like this.”

The problem, in his view, is the explosion of social media.

“Because of this social media boom, every person... is a critic.”

Trying to absorb every reaction, review and social-media verdict would be impossible.

“So if you start taking everything seriously, it becomes difficult because the genuine critics are left very few.”

And the problem isn't merely the volume of opinions. It's knowing which voices to trust.

“There is so much information. There is so much opinion that you really don't know what is true and what is not true.”

From ‘Golmaal’ to ‘Singham’ to ‘Drishyam’

Devgn is also one of those Hindi film stars who can claim successful franchises occupying wildly different cinematic worlds.

There's Golmaal, with its broad comedy. There's the swaggering action universe of Singham. And then there's Drishyam, where restraint, silence and calculation matter more than bombast.

Was that versatility part of some carefully plotted career strategy?

Not according to Devgn.

“I think that's fallen into place,” he said. “I've been very lucky that I've been given those choices by my directors.”

He credits filmmakers with trusting him to move between genres.

“They trust me to maybe handle a comedy character or a serious character like this or a hard-hitting character. So I'm very happy that they believe in me. They have offered me such things, so I've got the opportunity to play those.”

It's a typically understated response from an actor whose career has survived changing eras, audiences and definitions of mainstream Hindi cinema.

Is ‘Drishyam 3’ really the conclusion?

There was, however, one thing I wasn't entirely prepared to accept at face value.

Drishyam 3 is being presented as the conclusion.

But when a franchise has spent years teaching you never to believe everything Vijay Salgaonkar puts in front of you, surely a little scepticism is healthy.

“At the moment, it is a conclusion,” Devgn said.

At the moment?

I pushed him. Surely there was room for another twist, another chapter, another elaborate Vijay Salgaonkar manoeuvre?

“I can't predict it,” he said.

Then came three words guaranteed to give fans hope.

“Never say never.”

But before we could start mentally plotting Drishyam 4, Devgn returned firmly to what has actually been decided.

“The decision was, this is the conclusion,” he said. “The decision is right now that this is the conclusion ... Right now."

With Vijay Salgaonkar, perhaps those last two words worth holding on to.

Because if Drishyam has taught us anything, it's that when Vijay tells you a story is finished, you might want to check the facts one more time.