A man of many talents, Mahesh Manjrekar`s illustrious artistic repertoire features film credits as an actor, producer and writer-director. In a career spanning over two decades, he has acted in over 75 movies across all major film industries in the country, and has written and directed over 25 movies in Marathi and Hindi cinema. Of these, the bilingual drama Astitva (2000) won the National Film Award for Best Regional Film in 2001.
Though he had started out in showbiz at an early age, Mahesh announced his arrival in the world of cinema with the acclaimed Bollywood crime-drama Vaastav: The Reality (1999), which he wrote and directed. The Sanjay Dutt starrer, which told the story of a man forced into a life of crime by his circumstances, was a critical and commercial success and has since went on to gain a cult status. This was followed by a prolific phase in his career, both as an actor and filmmaker. While movies like Hathyar (2002), Pitaah (2002) and Viruddh: Family Comes First (2005) underlined his brilliance as a director, Mahesh gave some memorable performances as an actor in the Bollywood action-thriller Kaante (2002), the anthology film Dus Kahaniyaan (2007), the Academy Award-winning British film Slumdog Millionaire (2008) and the Marathi film Me Shivajiraje Bhosale Boltoy (2009).
Since 2010, the filmmaker has worked predominantly in Marathi cinema, delivering a number of acclaimed movies like City of Gold - Mumbai 1982: Ek Ankahee Kahani (2010), Lalbaug Parel: Zali Mumbai Sonyachi (2010), Kaksparsh (2012) and the Nana Patker starrer Natsamrat (2016). As an actor, he has had key roles in the Bollywood fantasy comedy OMG: Oh My God! (2012), Shootout at Wadala (2013), Singham Returns (2014), Bajirao Mastani (2015) and the Tamil film Velaikkaran (2017). In 2018, Mahesh Manjrekar appeared in a pivotal role in the biopic based on his long-time collaborator and friend Sanjay Dutt`s life. The Rajkumar Hirani directorial was titled Sanju, and starred Ranbir Kapoor in the lead role. His 2018 release includes Tukkaa Fitt, directed by Shawn Arranha. His 2019 releases include the Telugu film Vinaya Vidheya Rama, the Hindi film Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota, the Marathi film 66 Sadashiv and Saaho.