Chunky Pandey & Mahesh Manjrekar Movies Together List — 3 Films

The shape of the work

Chunky Pandey acted in every film; Mahesh Manjrekar acted in all of them.

Partnership facts

• Chunky Pandey was cast in 'Ready' (2011) only after Mahesh Manjrekar, who played the villain, personally recommended him to director Anees Bazmee. Manjrekar had seen Chunky's comic timing in a stage show and insisted he'd be perfect for the role of a bumbling sidekick.
• On the sets of 'Himmatwala' (2013), Manjrekar would deliberately flub his lines in Marathi-accented Hindi to make Chunky break character. Chunky later said those unscripted moments became the only watchable parts of the film.
• Their only hit together, 'Saaho' (2019), directly led to Mahesh Manjrekar being cast as the villain in Prabhas's next big-budget film 'Adipurush' (2023). The producers saw their on-screen clash in 'Saaho' and wanted a similar intensity.
• During the disastrous 'Himmatwala' shoot, Chunky Pandey and Mahesh Manjrekar shared a vanity van for two months. They spent nights rewriting each other's dialogues to make the comedy work, even though the director rarely used their versions.
• Mahesh Manjrekar said about Chunky Pandey after 'Saaho': 'He is the only actor who can make me laugh even when I am supposed to kill him on screen. That's a gift.'