What seemed to be a benign condition turned out to be bladder cancer for Mahesh Manjrekar. And in August this year, the actor-filmmaker underwent a surgery to get his cancerous cells removed. He tells us, “I was undergoing treatment for overactive bladder for one and a half years. But one day during the shoot of Antim: The Final Truth, I began bleeding. So, I had to go and get it checked. Turned out I had cancer all the while. I could have saved my bladder if I started the treatment for cancer one and a half years back.”

Majrekar went through four rounds of chemotherapy for three months as the shoot for Antim: The Final Truth continued. “Salman (Khan; actor) insisted that I go abroad and get the treatment done but I trusted our doctors here. I wasn’t too affected by chemo and thought that I might as well finish the film. And anyway after the surgery, I needed three months to recuperate,” he shares.

He, however, chose to keep the health ordeal hidden from the public eye. Talking about it, the 63-year-old says, “I had instructed everyone around me to not talk about it. So many people get cancer and hence, I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. It could also have appeared as if I’m asking for sympathy.”

As for the film, Manjrekar, along with the team, was all set for its digital release. But it was at that point in time that the announcement to reopen cinemas came about. “We thought that if the film releases digitally, everybody will be safe because there will be nothing to lose. It wasn’t one of those films for which we weren’t getting buyers. It’s a big-budget film but the money involved isn’t humongous. But Salman took a stand and said that we should release it theatrically first,” he concludes.