Salman Khan’s Dabangg 3 co-star Sai Manjrekar opens up about criticism she received for romancing the big star; ‘Saw everything and I was like this…’

Saiee Manjrekar, daughter of actors Mahesh Manjrekar and Medha Manjrekar, followed in her parents’ footsteps and chose acting as a career. Her first Hindi film was Dabangg 3, opposite Salman Khan in 2019. While the film did not do great business at the box office, it was also criticised for pairing 17-year-old Saiee with 54-year-old Khan.

During a recent interview with Siddharth Kannan, Saiee Manjrekar spoke about the negativity surrounding her age difference with her co-star Salman Khan. The young actress said that she was absolutely unaware of that buzz because at that time, when she had debuted and Dabangg 3 released, she had no PR or marketing team. So, she had no idea what was happening. She said, “I was just happy that I saw myself on the big screen.” However, six months later when she became more active on social media, she saw everything and was like ‘hmmm’.

But still, it didn’t affect her much as so much time had passed and she was already working on another project. She got this information when she was at a different stage of her life and career. The Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha actress said, “I am a very thick-skinned person and things don’t affect me easily. I have always been like this.”

In the same conversation, she also talked about the worst phase she went through after her first Bollywood film failed. She recalled the COVID-19 lockdown period, which made her realise that, contrary to what she thought of herself earlier, she had not achieved anything yet. During those 6-8 months, she sat with herself and her emotions and thought about what she wanted to do from there. She said that it was a bad phase because at that time, she had put her studies behind after completing her 12th standard.^th grades and decided to work full-time as an actor. But all her friends were busy with online classes and work. But since she had finished Dabangg 3 a few months ago and couldn’t work on her next film due to the pandemic, she was sitting idle all day. Even though she tried to spend time with her family, she was in a ‘dark phase’.