UTF8 Hex encoded post_name?

I am adding posts into the DB manually which is working fine except for one issue which is “post_name” in the “wp_post” table. I can format “post_name” when all characters are alphanumeric but when there is a non-alphanumeric chars is where I have problems. I don’t want to remove the non-alphanumeric chars, I just want to format them like if I was using the admin section to add new posts. For example:

post_title:
this is an example of the multiplication sign × in the post name
post_name:
this-is-an-example-of-the-multiplication-sign-%c3%97-in-the-post-name

The links to the post are 404 not found when non-alphanumeric chars are present. sanitize_title_blah_blah() just removes it, urlencode() doesn’t work, and htmlentities() is fail also.

%c3%97 seems to be the UTF8 HEX for ×(MULTIPLICATION SIGN) (refer: http://www.utf8-chartable.de/ to: c3 97).

any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you.