Jeethu Joseph, the director of the upcoming Malayalam suspense thriller film Drishyam 2 starring Mohanlal and Meena, said it took him five years to start working on the sequel of Drishyam.
“I started thinking of a sequel 2015 onwards, before that I had thought there is no possibility of making a sequel. The story is finished. It took me five years to come to (the) frame,” said Jeethu during a press meet after the launch of the film’s trailer.
Drishyam 2 will premiere on Amazon Prime Video on February 19.
Drishyam centred around Georgekutty (played by Mohanlal), a common man who uses his wits to protect his family from a murder charge. In Drishyam 2, the story picks up after seven years.
In the prequel, Meena played Georgekutty’s wife Rani, while Ansiba Hassan played his elder daughter Anju, and Esther Anil played his younger daughter Anu. All the main cast members have reprised their roles in Drishyam 2.
For Jeethu, who knows that the film comes with a “baggage of expectations”, the biggest challenge was to maintain “character continuity”. He said there should be a “slight change of characters, like their maturity, after seven years.”
“The family’s condition has changed. The family is living a life totally different from prior to the crime. Then I thought what will be the reaction of the society- from that aspect. Because he (Georgekutty) has been accused of some crime and later people are realising there is something. There is no smoke without fire, so people start gossiping, the jealousy of the neighbourhood,” he said.
Jeethu said he wanted to explore how Georgekutty and his family have been affected by what happened seven years ago as they don’t know “how to handle the pressure”.
“The family drama should be the core element of Drishyam 2, it should be concentrated on the family trauma after such a crime,” the director said.
“While Rani is lost and has an isolated feeling, Georgekutty is overconfident and so has become careless which affects Meena,” Jeethu explained, adding that while Ansiba’s character has some psychological issues, Esther is in a “don’t care attitude” because she is the “least affected”.
Taking about her role, Meena said that she was initially anxious about how much part she would get to play in the sequel. She said that her character “had a lot of depth and importance in Drishyam 2“.
Ansiba, who plays the role of Georgekutty’s elder daughter, also spoke about maintaining the “emotional continuity” from Drishyam.
Talking about her character, she said: “We had slight changes in the character because it has been seven years and she is now studying in college, she has a maturity of seven more years but still she is in trauma. But she is happy because her father is always there to protect her.”
Esther, who plays the younger daughter, said that she plays a rebel teenager.
Produced by Antony Perumbavoor under the banner of Aashirvad Cinemas, Drishyam 2′s supporting cast includes Siddique, Asha Sharath, Murali Gopy, and Saikumar.
