It took actor-filmmaker Mahesh Manjrekar four years to discover the true cause of his overactive bladder — high-grade bladder cancer. “I had been treating it for a long time, thinking it was an age-related issue,” recalls Manjrekar on World Cancer Day, adding, “After about four years of torture, when I passed blood in my urine, I had my tests done and found out that I had high-grade bladder cancer.”

Manjrekar, who continued directing Antim: The Final Truth (2021) after his diagnosis and even during treatment, emphasises on the importance of early detection in the fight against the disease. He shares, “After the age of 40, I would advise people to have regular checkups. Not to treat any disease, but to check on your well-being. I lost my bladder as a result of my ignorance.”

The 63-year-old reveals that he underwent over 11 hours of surgery to remove lymph nodes, and adds that he never lost hope even once during the ordeal. “One can die from malaria or dengue too. So, why do we presume that (one will die) once you get cancer and lose all hope? I treated it like any other disease,” shares Manjrekar.

He feels one should maintain distance from people who grieve about the diagnosis of cancer and shares, “People who come to sympathise with you, tell them to go home.”

He continues, “Family and friends should be extremely supportive and not come home and cry ki ‘kya hua, kaise hua’.”

The multi-award winning filmmaker, who is cancer-free now, says he no longer takes his health for granted. “Once bitten, twice shy. A yearly checkup, tests, and a PET scan would simply help you in the long run,” Manjrekar ends.

After a gap of over 10 years, Mahesh Manjrekar returned to directing Hindi films. The actor-filmmaker, who has a string of projects lined up in Marathi and Hindi, stepped in to helm Antim: The Final Truth, a remake of the Marathi film Mulshi Pattern (2018) that featured him in a pivotal role. In a chat with BT, Mahesh talks about how he convinced Salman Khan to break the mould, why he feels Aayush Sharma has Sanjay Dutt-like qualities and more. Excerpts:

For two years, I was actually getting myself treated for a condition, an overactive bladder. But when I underwent a cystoscopy, I was anticipating that it might turn out to be cancer. I knew that I would have to undergo chemotherapy and surgery, post which I would need a few months to recuperate. In my case, the chemotherapy didn’t affect me much. I needed three months to recuperate post-surgery, so I wrapped up most of the work on the film. We didn’t want anyone to know that I had been diagnosed with cancer, but a few days post my surgery, the word spread.

It was out of the blue that I had some sort of an attack, which triggered extensive treatment. I had to take a gap in the shoot for treatment. I had to let Salman and Aayush know that I was diagnosed with cancer. Salman advised me to go abroad and get it treated, but I decided to get myself treated here. Salman was very concerned, but when he saw that I was okay with the treatment, he came around it, too.

Around five years ago, I acted in Mulshi Pattern, directed by my friend Pravin Tarde. Pravin was to direct the remake, but then, he moved out of the project. Eventually, Salman offered me the film. I agreed, but on the condition that I would write it, too. Even when I was working in Mulshi Pattern, I had a different perspective on the story. I had to hold myself back from expressing my opinions to Pravin at that time because he was the director, and it had to be his vision. So, this time, when the film came to me, I first spoke to Pravin and then took on the film. I wrote the movie with my take on it and started shooting.

The story revolves around a young gangster and a cop who is against the gangsters and wants to wipe them out of the scene. The officer wants law and order to prevail, and then there are powers that try to stop him. The film builds on the clash between Salman and Aayush, two ideologically opposite individuals. The cop’s role in the original movie was not all that long. However, when I thought about the clash in the new version, I felt that the cop’s role needed to be longer. The approach to the narrative was also going to be realistic because I don’t make fantasies. I spoke to Salman and he agreed on a few of the pointers that I suggested. One of them was that I wanted the action to be raw and real, which meant no one would hang from cables, no flying in the air kind of action and nothing unreal. It had to be more of hand-to-hand, regular action. The characters look like they belong to Maharashtra. Aayush’s introduction scene is a high-power scene in which he is wearing a ganji in Govinda style. Salman was a bit concerned about it, but he agreed when I told him why it was necessary to have him look that way.

I had to tell Salman upfront that what he was doing to himself was pushing him into a professional graveyard. It happens when an actor gets stuck in the rut of trying to serve what the audience wants. I told him that we should try and do something different. The thing with fans is that they love an actor in a role, but if they see him do it too often and for too long, then they start getting irritated. An actor feels forced to do what their fans like. When we decided to make this film in a realistic space, I had to ensure that we didn’t lose track.

I’ve seen that in our films, actors want to enact their lines. When the script says ‘angry’, actors want to shout, whereas I feel that emphasising or shouting does not underline the anger a character is feeling. I made him underplay the lines.

In Aayush, I had seen a kind of fire in his eyes, although he has an innocent face, which is a deadly combination. When Aayush and I started working together, I told him to be honest to the genre. I had seen a kind of restlessness in Sanjay Dutt’s eyes back in the day; I see the same thing in Aayush today. I had advised Aayush to stay as close to the original film as possible to get the tone of his character right. I asked him to follow my instructions to the T, and he did. What you see in the trailer is not even a percentage of what that boy has delivered. In reality, I had seen characters like what Aayush has played in this film when I used to do theatre in Pune. Aayush has tremendous screen presence and control. I refrained from giving him anything typical — song, dance, romance. No tropes of commercial films, and he has come out shining.

Today, I have evolved as a director, but I am also scared when I see how brilliant and prepared the younger directors are. I feel like I need to be better prepared to compete with them. World cinema has come into our living rooms. There is a new kind of audience thanks to multiplexes and other avenues. Today, actors like Salman and Shah Rukh Khan have to do something different to evolve. Aamir Khan, for instance, has evolved with a careful choice of characters. Tere Naam is one of those rare Salman films where you see how deeply he can immerse himself into a character. He has done something out of the box previously, he just needs to do it more now. With Antim, Salman and Aayush are tapping into a lesser-known territory. If this film works, I will approach him with bolder content and different subjects. I hope people accept the film because then Salman will believe that people are ready to accept him in a new avatar.

How do you make Salman Khan’s role distinct from the plethora of cop characters he has played on screen before? That was Mahesh Manjrekar’s foremost concern when he started giving shape to Antim: The Final Truth that sees the superstar as a morally upright police officer. “He has played a cop in so many films — the Dabangg series, Wanted [2009], Garv [2004] and Radhe. So, Salman and I sat down to discuss how to make this character different. It was his idea to give the character a turban. Salman decided to grow his beard; he was [against the idea of] wearing a fake beard because it restricts one’s facial movements and affects the performance. He took a lot of trouble to do justice to the role,” says the director, evidently pleased with his leading man’s commitment to the project.

The actioner, an adaptation of Marathi hit Mulshi Pattern (2018), sees Aayush Sharma as a gangster whose criminal activities catch the attention of Khan’s cop. Manjrekar developed the cop as an all-white character, an antithesis to Sharma’s grey role. “He is an honest inspector who places duty above everything else.”

The director will remember the shoot of Antim for personal reasons — he was diagnosed with bladder cancer during filming, and underwent surgery in August. “I was being treated for overactive bladder for the past one-and-a-half years. [But earlier this year], I started bleeding. Before the doctors could tell me, I knew I had cancer,” says the filmmaker, who continued shooting as he underwent four rounds of chemotherapy.

“I couldn’t have waited till after the operation to finish the film. I had a three-month window before the surgery, where I had to undergo the chemo. I don’t know if it was my willpower, but I felt fine shooting the film [at the time].”

What seemed to be a benign condition turned out to be bladder cancer for director Mahesh Manjrekar. And in August this year, he underwent a surgery. He tells us, “I was undergoing treatment for overactive bladder for one and a half years. But one day, during the shoot of Antim: The Final Truth, I started bleeding. So, I had to get it checked. Turned out I had cancer all the while. I could have saved my bladder if I started treatment for cancer one and a half years ago.”

The actor-filmmaker went through four rounds of chemotherapy for three months, as the shoot for Antim: The Final Truth continued. “Salman (Khan; actor) insisted that I go abroad and get the treatment done. But, I trusted our doctors here. I wasn’t too affected by chemo and thought that I might as well finish the film. I anyway needed three months to recuperate after the surgery,” he shares.

He, however, chose to keep his illness hidden from the public eye. Talking about it, the 63-year-old says, “I had instructed everyone around me to not talk about it. So many people get cancer. I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. It could also have appeared as if I’m asking for sympathy.”

As for the film, Manjrekar, along with the team, was all set for its digital release. But it was at that point that the announcement to reopen cinemas came about. “We thought that if the film releases digitally, everybody will be safe, because there will be nothing to lose. It wasn’t one of those films for which we weren’t getting buyers. It’s a big-budget film, but the money involved isn’t humongous. But Salman took a stand and said that it should release in theatres,” says the filmmaker.

A few days ago, Mahesh Manjrekar underwent surgery for urinary bladder cancer. Not many were aware of the filmmaker-actor’s health condition and it took his friends from the film fraternity by surprise. As per reports, Mahesh was admitted to a South Mumbai hospital, and post his surgery, he is now back at home. 

Mahesh’s wife and actress Medha Manjrekar, says, “Mahesh is in recovery mode right now after the surgery. We got to know about his ailment a few months ago, but we decided to keep this news within the family. Mahesh is very strong and he has been working through his chemotherapy sessions. So, at home, we never felt that there is someone who is unwell. He is very positive. Now, everybody is waiting for him to get back to work, which he will very soon, and I am sure about that.”

Last week around the filmmaker’s birthday (August 16), his new directorial titled White was announced. He will also helm a biopic on Veer Savarkar. On August 17, pictures of Mahesh celebrating his birthday with Indian Idol 12 contestants went viral. Salman Khan was also seen in the pictures.

Talking about it, Medha says, “It wasn’t a celebration as such, but a small gettogether. Pawandeep Rajan (Indian Idol 12 winner) wanted to meet Mahesh and so he came along with fellow contestants. Salman surprised us by showing up. It was a very sweet gesture by Salman, who knew of Mahesh’s ailment.”