Vinod Khanna & Mahesh Manjrekar Movies Together List — 4 Films

The shape of the work

The 2000s belonged to 99; the 2010s to Dabangg. Vinod Khanna acted in every film; Mahesh Manjrekar acted in all of them. Strictly Hindi cinema — they never crossed industries together.

Partnership facts

• Vinod Khanna was the one who personally recommended Mahesh Manjrekar to play the villain in 'Wanted' (2009). Manjrekar had never played a Hindi film baddie before, and Khanna told the director that Manjrekar's intensity would match Salman Khan's.
• In 'Dabangg' (2010), Khanna played the stoic, silent father to Salman's Chulbul Pandey. Manjrekar, playing the villain, had no scenes with Khanna — but their offscreen dynamic set the tone: Khanna would calm Manjrekar down between takes, telling him 'less is more' for a villain.
• Their pairing in '99' (2009) — a heist comedy where Khanna played a gangster and Manjrekar a cop — directly inspired the casting of older, respected actors as comic foils in later Bollywood capers. The film's cult status led to a small wave of 'buddy-cop-gangster' comedies in the early 2010s.
• On the sets of 'Dabangg 3' (2019), Khanna and Manjrekar would share a cup of chai every morning before shoot, discussing Marathi theatre — Manjrekar's first love. Khanna, a trained stage actor himself, would quiz Manjrekar about his plays. No other co-star got that ritual.
• Mahesh Manjrekar once said in an interview: 'Vinod Khanna taught me that acting is about listening, not speaking. On the set of Wanted, he would just look at me during our scenes, and I would forget my lines because his silence was so powerful.'