Mahesh Manjrekar and Medha Manjrekar’s eighteen year old daughter Saiee is all set to step in to world of glamour with 'Dabangg 3'. Salman Khan is launching her in his cop franchise and has been cast her to play his love interest in the prequel to this film.
Saiee thinks she was destined to do this role and says, “I do believe in destiny a lot and I hope it works out. I think this is what destiny wanted me to be and this is where I am today. I always wanted to be an actress from very young age. I had decided this I wanted to do because I had seen my parents do it.
More than destiny, my wish to become an actor also was quite strong I guess. He was excited to know that I am doing this film. My mother was the first person to know about it, because she received a call saying that I have been finalised.
I had done few screen tests and she got the confirmation call. My father was very happy to hear it but told that I need to work hard now as this has come to you and you need to prove that you are worthy of it.”
Saiee says her father never recommended her name to anyone, “He never said that he will not support me, he was fine with whatever I want to do. But he did not really recommend me anywhere. My mother was also supportive of me, she told me you should give your best in whatever you choose to do that is something has always stuck with me.
Actually he never got a chance to recommend my name because I told him about my plans this year and told him that after I appear for my 12th grade exams I would want to take a gap from studies and try acting. Both of them said okay to this, let’s look at few scripts and see what is happening.
In March this year, my father was reading few scripts for me, in April I got a call from Salman sir’s office saying that they are considering me for Dabangg, so start preparing this is how I got the project. Everything happened so fast that, we never really got a chance to sit and discuss whether my father should do a film for me or something like that.”
Asked her how was it to be on the sets with Salman for the first time? To this she says, “I thought I would be intimidated because he is such a huge star and he has that aura about him. But when you meet him personally, he is the sweetest persons and you can be yourself when he is around.
So it was very comfortable working with him. I had met him couple of times before doing the film but he never knew that I want to act. This character, Khushi, which I play in the film, is very simple and sweet and they always had me in mind.
In fact they told me they wrote this character keeping me in mind. Of course they wrote some time back and wanted to see how I look now and so on. I am happy to get such a big platform for my debut, everyone on the sets have given me something to take back home.”
Has her father given her any advice before stepping into this world? She replies to this saying, “My mom and dad given me such values that I as a person would know what is right and what is wrong for me.
They trust me enough and would not judge me anything. My dad keeps discussing work but he doesn’t give me too much advice. Both of them are intense when they are working, I would like to take that quality from them. They are professional, focused and hard working. It has been inspiring to grown up watching them.
I have been taught at very young age importance of hard work so that is what I think I have inherited from them. I have lot of sense of responsibility as I have to make them proud and also Salman sir and Prabhu sir because they have trusted me a lot. ”
Talking about surviving in the industry she says, “Everyone has their strength and own plus points, you need capitalise on that. If you do that everything will fall into place, there are so many people who are talented, and everyone finds their groove eventually.
Audience is king that is something my father has always told memos if they will like me then they would want to see me in more films, if they don’t then I will work harder to make sure that they like me in my next project.”
Very few people know that Saiee was part of Mahesh’s film, revealing about her first film she says, “I have done a small part in Kaksparsha. I have been doing theatre for a very long time now.
I used to participate in the plays at school and college level. I have gone to workshops and done monologues. But it was not because I was preparing to become an actress but I did it just for fun. I had attended classes of acting.”
