Forty-eight-year-old Sanjay Dutt’s tanned face lit up as he rushed towards his teenaged daughter. He embraced Trishala and patted her head before saying, “You have lost a lot of weight. You remind me of my youth. I love you beta!”

After the day’s work, the father-daughter duo along with the rest of the cast headed to a nearby mall to watch The Incredible Hulk. Later Sanjay and Trishala, who were also accompanied by Manyata and Sanjay’s business manager Dharam Oberoi, had sushi at Nobu before returning to their respective suites at The Reef Atlantis on Paradise Island.

Earlier that day it was Manyata who had received Trishala, 19, on her arrival at the Lynden Pindling International Airport Nassau, Bahamas. Manyata’s first reaction on meeting her husband’s daughter from the late actress Richa Sharma had been: “Oh my god, you have lost so much weight since the last time I met you!” They had lunch together before heading to a nearby island to meet Sanjay.

The meeting between daughter and dad came after one-and-a-half years. More than the length, the meeting was the first after her father’s wedding to Manyata.

US citizen Trishala, who lives with aunt Enna and maternal grandparents Kailash and Mina Sharma in a modest one-floor house in Bayside, Queens, New York, felt betrayed when she got to know about her father’s wedding on February 11. What disappointed her was that Sanjay kept her in the dark about his third marriage.

Talk about Manyata’s relationship with her dad was nothing new. She met Manyata in India last year. But Trishala, a second-year student from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, had been assured by her dad that she would be the only woman in his life, something that she had publicly shared.

“I spoke to my father a few weeks after his marriage. When we spoke, it was like any other conversation — completely normal. There was no tension between us,” says Trishala.

However, accepting the fact that her father has found an answer to his loneliness in Manyata has not come easy to her. “Yes, I was harsh. It isn’t any of my business what he does or who he is with. He seems to be happy and if he is happy than I’m happy for him. If he found what he needs in her then that’s great,” says Trishala.

Witnessing her dad and Manyata together in Bahamas, Trishala is in no doubt that they are deeply in love. It is this happiness she sees which makes her overlook accusations ranging from Manyata’s alleged dubious past to the supposed rift she has caused between Sanjay and his two sisters, Namrata and Priya.

Manyata on her part has been trying to earn Trishala’s confidence. She bought Trishala a diamond-studded gold bracelet from Mumbai. Both of them spent a lot of time together in the Bahamas shopping and hanging out. She says, “We bought bathing suits, jewellery made of sea shells and other knick knacks.”

If the days were spent with Manyata, the evenings were with dad. In the evenings they headed to Starbucks for their dose of iced latte. She says that once back from the shoot Sanjay was only with her and Manyata joined them for dinner. Sanjay, out on bail after being convicted under the Arms Act, also took keen interest in Trishala’s choice of a career. “He is proud of me for choosing criminal psychology. I was updating him on the cases that I have studied, and my meetings with some criminals.”

What Sanjay doesn’t know yet is that his teenaged daughter wants to become an actress. Trishala, who is working out five days a week and having a controlled diet these days, says in all her interactions with Sanjay, he has always discouraged her from dabbling in films and modelling.

But her aunt Enna, wants to launch Trishala, who shot her first portfolio a year back, in a film with the director of her choice. “My grandparents and all my aunts are very supportive of me and all my decisions. I feel very blessed to have at least some people in the family who are supportive,” says Trishala.

This time, too, Trishala could not discuss her film plans with her father. She chose to spend every moment just talking about the things that interested him. “Dad is so handsome but he is completely tanned as he has been shooting in the sun,” she says.