Saif Ali Khan, who will soon be seen in his upcoming film, "Happy Ending", has been roped in to play the lead role in the Hindi remake of the hit Malayalam movie, "Drishyam".
Confirming the news, the original director of the film, Jeethu Joseph said: "Drishyam Hindi remake will proceed as planned though I won't be directing it. The rights have been bought by Viacom 18 Motion Pictures," reported India Glitz.
"After lots of discussions and speculation the lead role played by Mohanlal in the original will neither be played by Akshay Kumar and Ajay Devgn, but Saif Ali Khan has been confirmed for the role," he added.
Featuring superstar Mohanlal, "Drishyam" was released in 2013 and became highest earning film in the history of Malayalam cinema. The film also bagged several awards including Kerala State Film Award for Best Popular Film and the Filmfare Award for Best Film - Malayalam.
The film has also been remade in Telegu and Kannada, both of which was a huge box office success, while the Tamil version titled 'Papanaasam" starring Kamal Haasan will soon hit the theatres. However, the director for the Hindi version is yet to be confirmed.
Meanwhile, there were also reports that the Hindi remake has witnessed a roadblock as Ekta Kapoor, chief of Balaji Films, has expressed her objection to the plot of the film. Kapoor has even send a legal notice to Joseph claiming that "Drishyam" has resemblance to the novel "The Devotion of Suspect X", the rights of which she has bought to make a Bollywood film. The film is slated to go on floor next year and will be directed by Sujoy Ghosh of "Kahaani" fame.
Replying to Kapoor's notice, Joseph said: "After Ekta's legal team sent us the letter, I watched the Japanese film, Suspect X, which is an adaptation of the Japanese novel. There could be similarities between my film and that Japanese film, but my film is neither an adaptation nor a copy. The Japanese film is also about a murder mystery and hence the allegation. Similarities are quite common in the works of creators and that shouldn't be made into an issue."
