It’s surprising, and might we add refreshing, when Mahesh Manjrekar opens the conversation with: “I didn’t want any Salman-giri in the film, or what people typically expect from him.” This, when many filmmakers in Bollywood are happy to sell their movies on a singular factor — Salman Khan. But Manjrekar had envisioned Antim: The Final Truth as a gritty and honest film. “I wanted [Salman to play] a regular cop who wants to do his duty, but is handicapped due to the forces above him. I wanted that helplessness in him, and Salman brought that on [screen].”
Mahesh Manjrekar
While Manjrekar has long been friends with the actor, the actioner — an adaptation of the Marathi hit, Mulshi Pattern (2018) — marks his first directorial venture featuring Khan. “[On the set], it was the director-actor relationship. I was not there to butter him up by saying ‘Yeh badiya hai’. I was his friend who’d tell him the right [from] the wrong. I was honest with him all along.” The filmmaker adds that he agreed to helm the film on a condition. “I told Salman that I will write the film. That was my first victory. After I wrote it, there were some apprehensions about selling a movie that didn’t have a heroine opposite Salman. So, I included a heroine’s part and two songs. Later, Salman decided that he didn’t want a heroine or the song. That was my second victory.”
Manjrekar, the mind behind Vaastav (1999) and Astitva (2000), says his sensibilities don’t align with the masala films of Hindi cinema. “I try to make good cinema. That’s why I have not done [too many] Hindi films because people here know [how to make] commercial cinema. Today, people want to see content. If there is a star with it, that’s a bonus.”
