Jaideep Ahlawat replaces Akshaye Khanna in ‘Drishyam 3’; legal notice sent to ‘Dhurandhar’ star

Mumbai: Film producer Kumar Mangat Pathak on Saturday said they’ve issued a legal notice to Akshaye Khanna for breach of agreement for the upcoming film, “Drishyam 3”, after the actor refused to be "part of the film via a text message".

Mangat Pathak said they had signed an agreement with Khanna last month for “Drishyam 3” and the actor was also given advance payment.

He further added that they decided to sign Jaideep Ahlawat on Friday as their shoot was getting affected.

Written and directed by Abhishek Pathak, the film is presented by Star Studio18. It is produced by Alok Jain, Ajit Andhare, Kumar Mangat Pathak and Abhishek.

“We were working on ‘Drishyam 3’ for two years and Akshaye was aware of this. We had narrated the entire script to him and he had liked it. Before signing the agreement, we negotiated on his acting fee thrice and only after it was okay for both of us, we signed the agreement and gave him the signing amount,” Mangat Pathak, who has earlier backed “Omkara”, “No Smoking”, and “Section 375”, told PTI.

Khanna and his team were approached for a comment. They are yet to respond to the producer's claim. Without disclosing the exact signing amount, Mangat Pathak said that he was given "whatever fees he had asked for", which is three times more than "Drishyam 2".

"Drishyam 3" is headlined by Ajay Devgn, who plays the role of Vijay Salgaonkar, and Tabu is seen as former cop Meera Deshmukh.

In "Drishyam 2", Khanna essayed the role of IG Tarun Ahlawat who investigates the murder of Meera’s son Sam.

The producer said that Khanna signed the film only after long discussions on his looks.

“We also went a little back and forth for his look in the film, like he wanted to wear a wig and we told him that it would not look authentic if we suddenly gave his character a new look. He agreed to it and then we signed the agreement at his farmhouse in Alibaug, where he hugged Abhishek (director) and even said, ‘This is going to be a Rs. 500 crores film’,” the producer said.

“…But one day, he messaged saying, ‘I’m not doing the film’ and when he tried to reach out to him, he did not respond to calls and messages. His message came a day or two before the release of ‘Dhurandhar’,” he added.

He added that they were left with no other option but to take legal action, since Khanna had stopped responding to them.

“He didn’t respond to us when we sent him legal notice as he did not comply with the rules of the agreement. The notice was sent to him last week stating that, ‘You’ve to work according to the agreement and if you don't then we will file a case against you in the court’. It’s been a week he has not responded.

"We will be deciding on the next course of our action soon against him. We don’t know if the wig is the actual reason for not doing the film or was there something else. It’s a completely wrong thing that is happening,” he said.

“The work was also done on Akshaye’s look including his costumes, the filming for the movie too had begun from December 18 at YRF studios. He had given us dates till March. We are suffering losses because of him. Hence, we signed Jaideep,” he said.

Mangat Pathak, who has been working in the industry for close to five decades, described the chain of events as “disappointing”.

Having worked with Khanna on two of their films, “Aakrosh” and “Section 375”, the producer said they “never had any differences in the past”.

"He used to be a media shy person but today he is seen almost everywhere (on social media). We can clearly see there’s a paid campaign happening,” Mangat Pathak said, adding, it seems "the success of 'Dhurandhar' has gone to Khanna’s head".

The film is set to release in theatres on October 2, 2026.