`Dabangg` my last film as an actor: Mahesh Manjrekar

New Delhi: He has successfully juggled between acting and filmmaking but Mahesh Manjrekar now wants to focus solely on staying behind the camera and insists that Salaman Khan`s home production `Dabangg` would be his last film as an actor. "Acting is closed and Dabanng will be my last film as an actor in Bollywood. I don`t know, it does not excite me anymore and I have always believed I am a limited actor. I am not a bad actor but a smart actor and I have exhausted my smartness now," Manjrekar told reporters.

Manjrekar, who made his directorial debut with `Vaastav` in 1999 stayed away from direction in Bollywood after helming Amitabh Bachchan starrer `Virrudh` in 2005 and made his mark as an actor with films like `Kaante`, `Zinda` and `Slumdog Millionaire` directed by Danny Boyle. He is now back to direction with `City of Gold`, which is about the condition of Mumbai`s mill workers in 80s and the birth of organised crime in the city. "It was so shocking. After reading the script I felt so ashamed that I knew nothing about it. When I read the script I found this calamity to be of such big proportion. I was aghast, 3 lakh workers and their family were cut off and nobody blinked," Manjrekar said. "It`s the longest strike running ever, they are just asking for a roof over their head. I just want to highlight their plight with this movie," he added. Shot in Marathi and Hindi, the film that releases today stars 50 characters including Seema Biswas and Satish Kaushik. "I have lived with this film for four years. From the beginning I did not want stars in the movie. I wanted people who don`t look out of place in that society. I have my theatre to fall back on, I took Seema and Satish ji after watching the play `Salesman Ramlal`," Manjrekar said. "The film has 50 characters and it took a lot of struggle to get them, I have also taken boys from the families of these mill workers. They have the hunger in their eyes and that`s why I did not take professional child actors," he added. Manjrekar, 56, believes that post the success of `Slumdog Millionaire`, Mumbai has become the hot spot for filmmakers not only in Bollywood but abroad as well. "Boyle is set to direct Maximum City and a movie is being made on Gregory David Roberts` novel `Shantaram` around Mumbai. The city has potential to make a lot of films and has a lot of stories written to it. If you look a little carefully, you`ll seek it," said Manjrekar who has already planned to make a sequel to the `City of Gold`. Manjrekar says that the title `City of Gold` is a satire on the rising socio-economic disparity in the city. "It is the economic capital of the country and it`s a shamelessly expensive city. Imagine this side a square feet of area is sold for one lakh rupees while on the other side there are 3 lakh people who have not made this much money in their entire lifetime. Just because the city has been turned into a `city of gold` the common man is not required at all," he said. Manjrekar`s future projects include the Bengali remake of his Marathi film `Me Shivajiraje Bhosale Boltoy`. PTI