Mahesh Manjrekar is a Mumbai-born filmmaker and actor with over four decades of work spanning Hindi, Marathi, and Telugu cinema. As a director, his 1999 gangster drama Vaastav: The Reality became a landmark of Hindi crime cinema, and his Marathi film Astitva (2000) won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Marathi. He also gained recognition for his role as the gangster Javed in the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire (2008), and hosted Bigg Boss Marathi from its inception through Season 4.