“Lights. Camera. October.”

Antony Perumbavoor’s production banner Aashirvad Cinemas has announced that filming for the much anticipated third instalment of the DRISHYAM franchise will start in October. In an ominous reveal, the production house released a vertical black-and-white close-up of Georgekutty gazing into the camera, and just as he shuts his eye, the DRISHYAM 3 title card appears.

So, when will the highly-lauded Malayalam crime thriller’s third instalment hit the silver screen? While an exact date has not been set, multiple reports suggest that the production house aims for a 2026 release. The third chapter of the franchise was announced earlier this year via a joint post on Instagram from Perumbavoor and Mohanlal.

The plot of the film is kept tightly under wraps, which leads the audience to wonder—what predicament will Georgekutty and family end up in now? The first DRISHYAM film, which debuted in 2013, earned rave reviews and became the first Malayalam film to cross Rs 5 crore at the box office. The film chronicles Georgekutty who has to cover up an accidental death committed by his family out of self-defence. With the police on their tail, the patriarch does everything in his power to divert and mislead law enforcement.

While Mohanlal’s performance drew praise, the film was especially celebrated for its meticulously structured and intelligently written script, penned by Jeethu Joseph, who also helms the trilogy. DRISHYAM 2which was released in 2021, had an OTT release and premiered on Amazon Prime Video due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

DRISHYAM and DRISHYAM 2’s success triggered remakes across languages—Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Sinhala, and Chinese.