Director Mahesh Manjrekar is known for his much-loved films like ‘Vaastav: The Reality’, ‘Astitva’, and more.
However, unfortunately, the director was diagnosed with cancer while shooting for his upcoming movie, Antim, starring Salman Khan and Aayush Sharma.
The filmmaker was undergoing chemotherapy sessions during the shoot but he did not let that affect his work.
The 63-year-old had accepted the fate and knew at the back of his mind that he would survive. As per reports, Mahesh said, “I don’t know why I just accepted it. Somewhere I never thought it was cancer I thought it was overactive bladder because they have the same symptoms. I was the under the impression (of that). I was taking medicine for an overactive bladder for more than a year. Then it was not going.”
“When I went to the hospital for a cystoscopy so before the results were out somewhere in the back of my mind I knew I kind of had the diagnosis in me. I was prepared for it. So, it was not too much of a problem and by God’s grace when I went through the chemotherapy sessions it didn’t affect me as badly as it affects a lot of people maybe because mentally I was prepared for it and it did not come as a shock to me,” Manjrekar added.
He was mentally prepared about it and did not let it take a toll on the Antim: The Final Truth. “I was prepared for it… I said I would get through it. Because I was prepared mentally… The chemotherapy was happening every 15 days… Some how I was fine with the chemotherapy,” he said.
“It was after the first cycle I started losing hair and what I did was when I started losing hair I just shaved… because I was like ‘let me not go through the trauma of looking into the mirror and see’ and I did not give it much thought and I decided that I would finish the shoot and then go for surgery because it needed a lot of time for recovery.”
The movie ‘Antim: The Final Truth’ will be released in theatres worldwide on November 26.