Mahesh Manjrekar
Mahesh Manjrekar is an actor, born 1953.
Mahesh Manjrekar has two careers, and which one you know depends on where you live. In India he is a director first. Vaastav in 1999, Astitva in 2000 and Viruddh in 2005 made his reputation, and Astitva won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Marathi. He works across Hindi, Marathi and Telugu cinema, writes and produces as well, and hosted Bigg Boss Marathi from 2018 to 2023.
Outside India he is a face. Javed in Slumdog Millionaire and The Stork in The White Tiger are the two roles that travelled, and they are close cousins: men with power over people who cannot refuse them. He plays that register better than almost anyone currently working in Hindi cinema, without raising his voice or widening his eyes, which is why directors keep handing him the scene where somebody is quietly told how things are going to go.
The commercial filmography is enormous and mostly supporting. Police officers, ministers, fathers and fixers fill out Dabangg, Wanted, Ready, Bodyguard, Singham Returns, Jai Ho, Saaho and Sarkaru Vaari Paata. He was Chhatrapati Shahu in Bajirao Mastani and the opposing lawyer in OMG: Oh My God!. Recent work includes Antim: The Final Truth, Thug Life and Coolie, and he has kept directing alongside it, most recently Nay Varan Bhat Loncha Kon Nai Koncha in 2022.
Movies (35)
- Deool Band 2 (2026)
- Nagabandham: The Secret Treasure (2026)
- Raja Shivaji (2026)
- Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
- Bajirao Mastani (2015)
- Total Dhamaal (2019)
- Coolie (2025)
- Saaho (2019)
- Nay Varan Bhat Loncha Kon Nai Koncha (2022)
- Kurukshetra (2000)
- Dabangg 3 (2019)
- Mulshi Pattern (2018)
- Vinaya Vidheya Rama (2019)
- Bodyguard (2011)
- The White Tiger (2021)
- Antim: The Final Truth (2021)
- Antim: The Final Truth (2021)
- Thug Life (2025)
- Wanted (2009)
- Gandhi Talks (2026)
- The Big Bull (2021)
- Sarkaru Vaari Paata (2022)
- Velaikkaran (2017)
- Dabangg (2010)
- Vaastav (1999)
- OMG: Oh My God! (2012)
- Jai Ho (2014)
- The Man Who Feels No Pain (2019)
- The Devil (2025)
- Ready (2011)
TV (2)
Where to start with Mahesh Manjrekar
Most non-Indian viewers meet him in Slumdog Millionaire, where Javed is a small part played with real control. Follow it with The White Tiger, which gives him more room for the same kind of menace and is the better film about the same country.
For the director, Vaastav is the one that matters: the Mumbai underworld film that made his name, and still a hard, unsentimental piece of storytelling. Astitva, his other landmark, is not among the credits listed here.
Then pick a lane in the mainstream work. Bajirao Mastani is the prestige spectacle, OMG: Oh My God! the sharpest script he has been handed, Dabangg the populist blockbuster at full volume, and Taaza Khabar the recent streaming turn.