When the filmmakers of Major announced Saiee Manjrekar’s name as one of the female leads, their choice took many by surprise. Major would be the first film of this actress (in Telugu), who is incidentally also the daughter of actor–director Mahesh Manjrekar. In fact, Mahesh is a familiar face to the Telugu audience, having undertaken the role of the antagonist in several Telugu films.
Saiee, who has shot a couple of schedules in Hyderabad already, tells us that working in the Telugu industry has been a great learning experience for her. “However, I didn’t know the language so it was straightaway a challenge as it felt like stepping out of my comfort zone,” she shares.
Nevertheless, the actress found help in her dad, who even tipped her about the process of filmmaking. “He told me how he used to remember the lines and express them at the same time. Since he was also new to the language when he came to the industry back then, he wrote down his dialogues in Hindi, understood them and then emoted,” she explains.
And because like father, like daughter, Saiee followed the pattern her dad kept up with. “I’ve also been writing the dialogues in English and Hindi to get the essence of it before I step in for the take. So this advice from my father has actually helped me a lot and has made things easy for me,” says the actress.
That being said, with Saiee having done several scenes in the film, the actress has now gotten comfortable with the language. “I can’t speak the language fluently, but I am able to understand the conversations and am getting to a stage where I can get a hang of it,” she says.
Major nostalgia
In Major, the film on the life of late Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan (played by actor Sesh Adivi), Saiee would be seen as the protagonist’s love interest since school. So also, especially those school scenes were nostalgic for Saiee, who recently passed out from her Plus-Two (intermediate) in 2019.
“The memories of my campus life are still fresh in my mind. And although I passed out in 2019, I did not have time to revisit or go back to college. So I thoroughly enjoyed shooting the campus scenes as they brought back my old memories,” she says.
In fact, while shooting for the campus scenes, Saiee would spend time looking at all her school photos and videos before she hit the bed. As for the actor who plays her love interest in the film Sesh, Saiee has good words about him.
Calling him a passionate performer and someone who is focused and serious about his work, she adds, “He is also normally cracking jokes, so he’s easy to work with.”
Exploring more than just the language
Much before she wrapped up the shooting of Major, the Dabangg 3 actress also signed up for another film, Ghani, a boxing drama, in which she’s paired opposite Varun Tej.
Even in Ghani, she says there was quite a bit of preparation that went into her role as Varun’s love interest. “There was an assistant director (AD) who travelled to Hyderabad with me,” she recollects, pointing out that she always believes that understanding a language is critical to better performing the role.
“He used to explain to me the scenes and dialogues in Hindi. So, I focussed on understanding the emotions before I started to work on it. This way, I could better express myself.”
Saiee’s on-the-sets conversations with Varun, incidentally, were about all the latest happenings around the world. “I am a chatterbox; we also bonded over food and fitness. He even gave me a few tips on how to embrace the camera. He’s warm and friendly,” she expresses, adding that she could perform well because her co-actor (Varun) made her comfortable.
“I believe that’s the key to your performance,” she says.
