{"id":384,"date":"2026-05-21T04:38:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T04:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=384"},"modified":"2026-05-21T04:38:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T04:38:00","slug":"jeethu-joseph-on-drishyam-3-the-fear-factor-and-the-thriller-label","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=384","title":{"rendered":"Jeethu Joseph on \u2018Drishyam 3,\u2019 the Fear Factor and the Thriller Label"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<!-- do not apply CSS styles to this element! --><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n\tYears before he ever set foot on a film set, Jeethu Joseph heard a story from a friend. It was about two families: a boy, a girl, a relationship that unraveled into a police case. Both families had done something right. Both had done something wrong. And nobody in the room could decide whose side to take.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=382\">\u2018Mahaprabhu Jagannath\u2019 Animated Feature to Launch Ele Animations\u2019 \u2018Sanatan Universe\u2019 (EXCLUSIVE)<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe question lodged somewhere in Joseph\u2019s mind and stayed there. What would happen if you put an audience in that same position? What would they do when there was no clean side to choose?<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThat single ethical knot became the seed of \u201cDrishyam,\u201d the 2013 Malayalam thriller starring Mohanlal as Georgekutty \u2013 the wily cable operator who buries a crime so thoroughly that it takes the law years to find its footing. The film became a phenomenon. Two sequels, a Hindi, Telugu and Kannada-language remakes, a Tamil remake Joseph directed himself with Kamal Haasan, and adaptations in Chinese, and Sinhala later, the franchise is still expanding. Now Joseph is heading back into Georgekutty\u2019s house for \u201cDrishyam 3\u201d \u2013 and this time, the walls are closing in.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cWhat \u2018Three\u2019 is basically concentrated on is Georgekutty\u2019s fear and his tension, from his angle,\u201d Joseph tells <em>Variety<\/em>. The children have grown up, their thinking has shifted. Georgekutty has aged. And the punishment that \u201cDrishyam 2\u201d left hanging over his head is no longer theoretical.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cHe will spend his whole life expecting the police,\u201d Joseph says. \u201cThat is his punishment. Will he have peace in life? Whenever he sees anything, he will feel somebody is following him. He is going through life on permanent alert.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tIt is a quieter, more psychological menace than the franchise\u2019s fans might anticipate \u2013 and Joseph knows it. From the moment \u201cDrishyam\u201d became a cultural event, audiences filed it under thriller, mesmerized by Georgekutty\u2019s labyrinthine common sense. Joseph has never quite agreed with that categorization.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cI actually believe, then and now, that this is a family drama,\u201d he says. \u201cOne family trying to protect their daughter, the other family fighting for justice for their son.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe franchise\u2019s reach \u2013 it traveled as far as China, where Joseph attended screenings \u2013 has, in his view, vindicated the point. The core of the story, a father holding his family together through desperation, needs no cultural translation. He traces Georgekutty\u2019s magnetism back to the character\u2019s origins: a man who came from nothing and built everything through sheer will.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cHe is an orphan, someone who grew up through hard work and built his own family,\u201d Joseph says. \u201cWhen he sees that family slipping away, he desperately holds on. Because in his life, they are all he has.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=380\">Meet Rover, the Shorts Streamer That Aims to Democratize Moviemaking: It\u2019s \u2018Like Sitting in the Room With the Filmmaker\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tThat universality, though, comes wrapped in expectation \u2013 a pressure Joseph is candid about. Audiences who loved the franchise\u2019s procedural ingenuity will arrive at \u201cThree\u201d anticipating the next brilliant maneuver. Joseph says he cannot write to that.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cI took an organic approach to the character and the story line,\u201d he says. \u201cI hope it will satisfy them. But there is no formula for cinema.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tHe is just as frank about the cost of the franchise\u2019s success. When \u201cDrishyam\u201d and \u201cMemories\u201d \u2013 his atmospheric missing-person thriller \u2013 landed in the same year, 2013, the industry labeled him a thriller director. The stamp has been difficult to shift. He made \u201cLife of Josutty\u201d directly after \u201cDrishyam,\u201d a tonal departure he knew would land differently. It struggled at the box office. Audiences had arrived expecting a twist.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201c\u2018Memories\u2019 and \u2018Drishyam\u2019 are a blessing and a curse,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tHe has kept pushing at the edges regardless. His courtroom family drama \u201cNeru,\u201d with Mohanlal, was a significant hit. The comedy \u201cNunakuzhi\u201d did respectable business. Horror, a musical \u2013 these are genres he says he is actively developing. The goal is simple.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cI am basically a storyteller, someone who wants to tell stories,\u201d he says. \u201cIf I get a good story line \u2013 whether it is a big film or a small film \u2013 I want to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tAfter \u201cDrishyam 3,\u201d two projects are next in line: a Telugu film written by Santhi Mayadevi, the screenwriter of \u201cNeru,\u201d and a project with Prithviraj Sukumaran, both currently in the writing stage. <\/p>\n<p>\n\tAs for \u201cDrishyam 4\u201d \u2013 Joseph hasn\u2019t ruled it out. After a preview of \u201cTwo,\u201d Mohanlal asked Joseph whether a third film was possible. Joseph told him that if there were a \u201cThree,\u201d he already had a sense of how it should end \u2013 and that, depending on what the third film yields, a fourth remains an open question.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=378\">\u2018The Bear\u2019 Honored as the Italian Beef Is Named Official State Sandwich of Illinois<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cLet \u2018Three\u2019 release,\u201d he says. \u201cThen we\u2019ll see what happens to this family.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Director Jeethu Joseph discusses &#8216;Drishyam 3,&#8217; the franchise&#8217;s emotional core and his ambitions beyond the thriller genre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[405,406,407],"class_list":["post-384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film","tag-drishyam-3","tag-jeethu-joseph","tag-mohanlal"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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