Actor Saiee Manjrekar feels grateful that she can call actor Salman Khan her “safety/protective net”. The 22-year-old considers Khan her mentor and advisor ever since making her Bollywood debut in the 2019 film Dabangg 3. She also cherishes having exclusive access to her father, director Mahesh Manjrekar, for assistance on professional matters.

In a chat with us, Saiee opens up about whether debuting in a mega franchise such as Dabangg casts a shadow on her recognition and acting skills. “No one ever came to watch Dabangg 3 (2019) for me. It was a Salman Khan film that I got to be a part of. There’s nothing better than that for a newcomer. The amount of recognition it got me would have taken me years to build that up,” says the actor, who recently returned to Bollywood with Kuch Khattaa Ho Jaay, three years after Dabangg 3, and her next is Auron Mein Kaha Dum Tha.

All this while, she did films down south, including Ghani, Major (both 2022) and Skanda (2023). Looking back at how South movies kept her busy all this while, she tells us, “From the kind of roles that were being offered to me, I felt connected with the ones that came from South.”

As for her apparent “return” to Hindi films, Saiee shares that she picked Kuch Khattaa Ho Jaay because she always wanted to do rom-coms, something she’s grown up watching. “It’s a full family entertainer. I don’t remember the last time I watched a film with my parents without being shy about what we were watching together,” she says, adding that she hopes to experiment with her roles.

And even today, Saiee makes sure to call and inform Khan about the projects she has signed. “I feel it would be unfair not to tell him. He has given me this opportunity, and if I’m getting work, I will always be thankful to him,” the actor confesses.

According to her, while her father would never interfere in her professional decisions, she loves their “dinner table conversations” discussing his work. “He gives me the best advice from a director’s perspective. But there’s also a lot of constructive criticism after watching my film,” she says.

Speaking about the nepotism debate, she admits that she doesn’t know how life would be in the industry if she wasn’t from a film family. “I’ve always been a little confused because I wouldn’t know how hard it is not to be from a film family. Something that’s hard for me, someone’s working harder to get that. It’s the way you look at it,” she said.

For Saiee, her dad and Khan are her “protective figures”,  because, entering the industry at such a young age, “a safety net was so important to feel secure. I can’t imagine how it must be for people who come in on their own. That’s so scary”.