Saiee Manjrekar, the younger daughter of actor and filmmaker Mahesh Manjrekar, made her debut in a massy commercial film like Dabangg 3, playing the love interest of Salman Khan in his younger days. While she plays the younger interest of the hero in her second film Major, the big difference is that she plays the love interest of Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, who lost his life in the 26/11 attacks by terrorists in Mumbai. The very mention of that event gives her goosebumps even today though she was pretty young when it happened.
“Whenever one hears the mention of 26/11 – every Indian would be reminded how patriotic that day was because so many people laid down their lives to protect us. Everyone was watching what happened on that day and soon after,” says Saiee.
The actress feels that she was entrusted with a great responsibility when she was offered a role in the film. “My role basically shows the young, innocent and purer part of Major Sandeep’s life. I have such a serious role in my second film. At the end of the day, I am playing a character in a movie that is showing what has actually happened with some people. So it not only makes me more responsible, and I do not want to misrepresent their emotions,” she adds.
Saiee is also proud that she is part of such an important film. “I am very proud and honoured to have worked in this film. When I was young I wanted to be a heroine and work with heroes. I am so lucky that I am working on a film about a real-life hero, and I had never imagined this in my wildest dreams. I would really like to thank both Adivi Sesh and Sashi sir (director Sashi Kiran Tikka) for making me a part of this movie. I am playing the childhood sweetheart of Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan in the film. So you will see a lot of purity, innocence and vulnerability in her character. I have tried to play the character with utmost honesty, and I really hope that everyone will like what I have done,” she says.
Saiee says that she did learn quite a lot from the filming of the movie. “The shooting of the film was quite a learning experience for me, and it was absolutely brilliant. I am saying this because there were a lot of people who came and helped and supported me during the shooting. The character is also a very different one and an important one in the context of the kind of film that was being made. Whenever I had any issues like getting stuck on something or some scene or some dialogue – everyone came forward to help me, especially Sesh. He also speaks very good Hindi, and he was a great teacher when it came to speaking Telugu as well in the film,” she signs off.
