It did a lot of damage: Mandakini breaks silence on photo with Dawood Ibrahim

Actor Mandakini said the Dawood Ibrahim photograph was taken when she was in Dubai for a show, not a match. She said the controversy damaged her career and that she had denied the rumours at the time.

In Short

• Mandakini denied being invited by Dawood Ibrahim to attend Dubai match
• She said artists meet many people and can't control rumours or media reports
• The actor admitted that the controversy caused serious damage to her career

Veteran actor Mandakini has broken her silence on the photograph with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim that became one of the biggest controversies of her career, saying the episode “did a lot of damage”. In a recent interview, she said she was neither invited by him nor in Dubai to watch a match when the picture was taken.

Mandakini said artists meet thousands of people and cannot control what others choose to write or say about them. She added that she had denied the rumours at the time, that those denials were carried in the media. The actor also said that she did not know about alleged underworld funding in Bollywood during the 1980s.

Recalling the circumstances around the image in an interview with ANI, Mandakini said, “Jo bhi log likhna chahe, jo bhi bolna chahe, we don't have control over it. Ek artist ko hazaron log milte hain aur hum sabke liye barabar hai (People may want to write or speak whatever they wish—we have no control over that. An artist meets thousands of people, and everyone is equal to us.)

"I did not even go to Dubai to watch the match. Hum waha kisi show ke liye gaye the. Match mein bahut saare log baithe the (We had gone there for a show. There were a lot of people seated at the match), and he was just sitting there.”

She also rejected the suggestion that Dawood Ibrahim had invited her. “No, I was not invited by Dawood. Controversy banana aur ek chiz ko interesting banana yeh sab mjhe nahi pata tha (I didn't know anything about manufacturing controversy or making something interesting),” she said.

‘The controversy did a lot of damage’

Mandakini said the fallout from the episode was serious and that she later realised the importance of having a team to handle such matters. “The controversy did a lot of damage. Later, I came to know that one should have a team to take care of all these things. I denied the rumours everywhere,” she said.

She said her denial had also been reported at the time and repeated that she did not know about alleged underworld funding in Bollywood during that period. “It was also printed at the time that I denied the rumours. I did not even know about the underworld funding in Bollywood during the 80s. I got to know about these things through films which were made later,” Mandakini said.

A wider look back at her career

In the same interview, Mandakini also looked back at Ram Teri Ganga Maili, her debut film directed by Raj Kapoor. Released in 1985, the film became a major success and established her as one of the prominent faces of Hindi cinema in the 1980s. She said filming began when she was 16 and described it as Raj Kapoor’s final directorial venture.

Mandakini addressed the long-running discussion around the white saree waterfall sequence in Tujhe Bulayen Yeh Meri Bahen and the breastfeeding scene, saying she did not find the scenes vulgar or uncomfortable. She said both moments were meant to show innocence and purity in the story, rather than the sensationalised reading they later received.

After the film’s success, she went on to work with several leading names in the industry, including Mithun Chakraborty and Govinda, and appeared in numerous films. Her filmography also includes Tezaab, which featured Anil Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit in the lead roles. In 2023, she appeared on The Kapil Sharma Show alongside Varsha Usgaonkar and Sangeeta Bijlani, where she shared several anecdotes with Kapil Sharma.

- Ends