Drushyam (2014)

Interesting facts

Drushyam (transl. Vision) is a 2014 Indian Telugu-language crime drama film directed by Sripriya and produced by D. Suresh Babu and Rajkumar Sethupathi. A remake of the 2013 Malayalam film Drishyam, the film stars Venkatesh, Meena, Esther Anil, and Kruthika Jayakumar. Venkatesh and Kruthika portray the roles played by Mohanlal and Ansiba Hasan in the original, whereas Meena and Esther reprises their roles. The film tells the story of Rambabu, a middle-class cable TV operator, and his family. They come under suspicion when Varun, the son of the Inspector-general of police (IG), goes missing soon after harassing Rambabu's daughter.

Production

Rajkumar Sethupathi acquired the rights to remake Jeethu Joseph's Malayalam film Drishyam (2013), which starred Mohanlal, Meena and Asha Sarath. Following Kamal Haasan's suggestion, Sethupathi chose Daggubati Venkatesh to play the lead role in the Telugu version. Haasan previously met Venkatesh in Goa and advised him to act in a film that challenges him as an actor. Venkatesh, along with his brother Daggubati Suresh Babu, then watched Drishyam.

After Drishyam's Telugu remake was confirmed, Haasan called Venkatesh to tell him that he was happy that Venkatesh was going to play Mohanlal's role from the original. After considering other potential titles, Drushyam was finalised because of its relevance to the film's storyline. 'Darling' Swami and the Paruchuri brothers wrote the dialogues. The film had its formal launch ceremony on 21 February 2014 in Hyderabad. Sharreth composed the music.

When I played Anu in the Malayalam version I found it very difficult, because the character is complex. However, it was easier when I did the Telugu one because I had done the same role once before. One of our associate directors happens to be a Malayali and he would write out my dialogues in Malayalam for me. Everybody else would help me with the pronunciation.

Meena reprised her role from the original, marking her comeback to Telugu cinema after sixteen years. It was her fifth collaboration with Venkatesh. She called her character "innocent, vulnerable, emotional, sweet, funny and strong all at the same time", adding that she was initially sceptical to play a mother to adolescents because Telugu film sensibilities were different from that of Malayalam ones, but accepted it due to the script's novelty.

A casting call was announced by Suresh Productions for the roles of Venkatesh's daughters in the film. They were looking for a girl aged 14–17 years to play the role of the elder daughter named Anjali, and another aged 8–12 years to play her younger sibling, Anu. Esther Anil was confirmed to reprise her role as the younger sister.

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