Rajesh Khanna (pronounced[rɑːˈdʒeːʃkʰənˈnə]) (pronunciationⓘ; born Jatin Khanna; 29 December 1942 – 18 July 2012) was an Indian actor, film producer and politician who worked in Hindi films. Considered as one of the greatest and most successful actors in the history of Indian cinema, he is known as the first SuperstarofIndian cinema.[3][4]His accolades include five Filmfare Awards, and in 2013, he was posthumously awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honour.
Khanna died on 18 July 2012, after a period of illness.[10] He has been honoured with a stamp and statue in his likeness, and a road renamed after him by the Prime Minister of India.
Khanna's ancestral residence in Burewala, Punjab Pakistan
Rajesh Khanna was born on 29 December 1942, in Amritsar in the Punjab ProvinceofBritish India,[1] as 'Jatin Khanna' into a Punjabi HinduKhatri family.[11][12][13][14] He was adopted and raised by Chunnilal Khanna and Leelawati Khanna,[15] who were relatives of his biological parents. His father had migrated from West Punjab to Gali Tiwarian in Amritsar. His biological parents were Lala Hiranand Khanna and Chandrani Khanna. Lala worked as headmaster of the MC High School in Burewala (in present-day Vehari District, Punjab, Pakistan).[16][17] His adoptive parents belonged to a family of railway contractors who had moved from LahoretoBombay in 1935.[18] Khanna lived in Saraswati Niwas,[19] in Thakur-dwar near Girgaon, Mumbai.
He attended St. Sebastian's Goan High School with his friend Ravi Kapoor, who later took the stage name Jeetendra.[20] Khanna gradually started taking an interest in theatre, did many stage and theatre plays in his school and college days, and won many prizes in inter-college drama competitions.[21]
In 1962 Khanna played a wounded mute soldier in the play Andha Yug and impressed with his performance; the chief guest suggested that he get into films soon.[22] Khanna became a rare newcomer who had his own MG sports car, who once struggled to get work in theatre and films in the early 1960s.[23]
Khanna did his first two years of Bachelor of ArtsatNowrosjee Wadia CollegeinPune from 1959 to 1961.[24] He later studied at Kishinchand Chellaram College, Mumbai and Jeetendra studied at Siddharth Jain College. Khanna tutored Jeetendra for his first film audition. Khanna's uncle KK Talwar changed Khanna's first name to Rajesh when he decided to enter films.[25] His friends and his wife called him Kaka (meaning a baby faced boy in Punjabi).[26]
He made his film debut in the 1966 film Aakhri Khat, directed by Chetan Anand, followed by Raaz (1967), directed by Ravindra Dave, both of which were a part of his predetermined prize for winning the All-India United Producers' Talent Competition.[30]G.P. Sippy and Nasir Hussain were the first to sign Khanna after he won the contest.[31]
"Though 'Aakhri Khat' is my first film, I received my first break as a leading actor in Ravindra Dave's, 'Raaz', in 1967. My heroine was Babita, already a popular actress then. Though I had lots of confidence, I was shy in facing the camera initially. In my first three shots, I had to perform with stress on my body language and dialogue delivery. Though I was right with my dialogues, my movements were not up to the mark. Ravindra Dave explained me my scenes and movements very clearly correcting my way of walking."
Khanna's remarks after Aakhri Khat was India's entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 40th Oscar Academy Awards in 1967.[32]
Being under contract with United Producers, he got projects, such as Aurat (1967) and Baharon Ke Sapne (1967), both of which were commercially unsuccessful.[33][34]
Khanna's first release of 1973 was Sachin Bhowmick's romantic dramaRaja Rani in which he starred alongside his Aradhana co-star Sharmila Tagore.[56] Despite huge expectations, it ended up as a commercially unsuccessful venture.[57] After this, he reunited with Tagore for Yash Chopra's maiden production and sixth directional venture Daag: A Poem of Love which also had Rakhee in the lead.[58] Inspired from Thomas Hardy's novel The Mayor of Casterbridge, it was a major critical and commercial success, eventually emerging a blockbuster and laying the foundation of Yash Raj Films (which is the biggest production house in India till today).[59][55] Its soundtrack composed by Laxmikant–Pyarelal dominated the musical charts and was one of the best selling Hindi film albums of the 1970s.[60] His final release that year was the social drama film Namak Haraam which also opened to positive response from critics and proved to be a superhit at the box office.[61][62] Khanna received his fifth nomination in the best actor category at the Filmfare Awards for Daag and won his third BFJA Award for Best Actor (Hindi) for Namak Haraam. 1974 was a great year for Khanna with both critical and commercial appreciation coming his way. His first film Humshakal performed poorly at the box office, but his second release Aap Ki Kasam which was also J. Om Prakash's debut as a filmmaker proved to be a superhit.[63] All of its songs were major hits too, especially "Zindagi Ke Safar Mein Guzar Jate Hain Jo Maqaam" sung by Kishore Kumar.[64] This was followed by Prem Nagar which was a remake of Akkineni Nageswara Rao's all time Telugu hit Prema Nagar (1971).[65]Prem Nagar like the original opened to excellent response from the audience, eventually doing more business than Khanna's last major hit Aap Ki Kasam and emerging a blockbuster.[55]Basu Bhattacharya's art-house film Avishkaar and Shakti Samanta's crime thrillerAjanabee were his next two releases.[66][67] While Ajanabee did reasonable business and proved to be a semi-hit, Avishkaar was a commercial flop, but a huge critical success and won Khanna his third and final Filmfare Award for Best Actor for his subtle portrayal of a disillusioned husband.[68] His last film of the year was Manmohan Desai's action dramaRoti which released alongside another biggie Roti Kapada Aur Makaan, but still went on to become a blockbuster at the box office.[55] Due to its huge success, Roti was also remade in Telugu as Neram Nadi Kadu Akalidi (1976).[69]
Career fluctuations, occasional success and comeback (1975-1990)[edit]
The declaration of emergency in 1975 had angered the masses and this helped films having the lead character revolting against corruption and establishment to become successes. The shift from romantic and social movies to action oriented multi-starrers changed the box office equation and saw the emergence of a new Superstar in the form of Amitabh Bachchan.[70] With Bachchan's rise and his poor choice of films in the mid 1970s, Khanna suffered a major career setback and eventually, lost his superstardom.[71][72]
After almost a decade of lukewarm success, Khanna made a notable comeback in 1983.[105] His first release Nishaan didn't do well, but his second release, Mohan Kumar's Avtaar went on to become a blockbuster & was among the highest-grossing films of the year.[106] Khanna received his 14th and final nomination in the Filmfare Award for Best Actor category for Avtaar.[107][108] His next release was Saawan Kumar Tak's romantic drama Souten.[109] It was the first Hindi film ever to be shot in Mauritius and had a chartbuster soundtrack composed by Usha Khanna with songs "Shayad Meri Shaadi Ka Khayal" and "Zindagi Pyaar Ka Geet Hai" topping the musical chart that year.[110] The film emerged a superhit and also one of the best selling Hindi film albums of the 1980s.[111][95] Khanna completed his hat-trick with another hit in Lekh Tandon's Agar Tum Na Hote.[112] With three back-to-back hits in 1983, he proved that audience still adored him.[34] Khanna's successful run continued in 1984 with a superhit in K. Bapaiah's Maqsad, which took 2nd spot at the box office that year, hits in Asha Jyoti, Dharm Aur Qanoon and a semi-hit in Naya Kadam; however, the year 1985 proved to be a mixed bag for him. While five of Khanna's films, Hum Dono, Masterji, Bewafai, Durgaa and Babu emerged commercial successes, rest six were box office flops, including biggies, such as Zamana, Aakhir Kyon? and Alag Alag (which he also produced).[113][114][115]
The following year, he reunited with Mohan Kumar for Amrit opposite Smita Patil.[116] It went on to become a critical and commercial success with Khanna winning his fourth and final BFJA Award for Best Actor (Hindi) for his performance in the film.[117] The success of Amrit was followed by hits in Vijay Sadanah's Adhikar opposite Munim and Aravind Sen's Nasihat co-starring Shabana Azmi, Mithun Chakraborty and Deepti Naval.[118][63] Khanna did few films in 1987 and 1988 with notable ones being Ravi Tandon's Nazrana (1987), B. R. Chopra's Awam (1987) and Yash Chopra's Vijay (1988). Out of them, Nazrana emerged an average fare, but Awam and Vijay proved to be critical and commercial failures.[119] In 1989, he appeared in Ghar Ka Chiraag alongside Chunky Pandey and Neelam, which emerged a hit at the box office.[120] In 1990, he starred in David Dhawan's Swarg, an adaptation of Ashok Kumar starrer Mehrban (1967), it went on to become a hit and established Dhawan's career as a director.[121]Swarg also proved to be the last major success of Khanna's career.[122]
Sabbatical, work in television and later career (1991–2012)[edit]
In 1991, Khanna had three releases – Begunaah, Rupaye Dus Karod and Ghar Parivar. After this, he quit acting for sometime to focus on his political career.[123] From 1992 to 1996, he had only two releases with Khudai (1994) and Sautela Bhai (1996), both of which were commercially unsuccessful ventures.
In 1999, Khanna starred in Rishi Kapoor's directional debut Aa Ab Laut Chalen.[124] Despite being hugely hyped before its release, the film received negative reviews from critics and ended up as a below average grosser.[125][126]
Khanna appeared in a rare interview in the show Aap Ki Adalat in 1992, where he quoted to the interviewer Rajat Sharma, "I would just ask if I am arrogant, how come all these producers made so many films with me. My fans who turned this actor into a superstar would have never accepted me if I was arrogant. If I was arrogant people would not have made me a Lok Sabha member because if someone is arrogant, that arrogance is visible. And this public knows everything and understand everything".[133]
Khanna was a life member of the International Film And Television Research Centre, the International Film And Television Club and the Asian Academy of Film & Television.[134] He was Faculty Guest of "Specialised Cinema Courses At Asian School Of Media Studies". On 10 April 1999 Khanna inaugurated the live concert of S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, held at Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium, Hyderabad as a tribute to R. D. Burman.[135] In 2001 and 2002, Khanna played the lead in two television serials: Aapne Parai (B4U and DD Metro) and Ittefaq (Zee TV).[136] He performed in a video album based on Tagore's songs (Rabindra Sangeet) without payment.[137] He also endorsed Star se Superstar tak – a talent hunt programme in 2007 and donated a Gold Trophy of Rs.1 crore. In its Silver Jubilee Episode on 14–15 March 2008, K for Kishore aired a Rajesh Khanna special. He signed on to star in a TV serial with Creative Eye Banner, (Dhiraj Kumar) in 2007, and in 2008 performed in a TV serial, Bhabhima, with Leena Ganguly as his co-star. His successful TV serial Raghukul Reet Sada Chali Aayi began in November 2008 and ended in September 2009.[138] Khanna cited the lack of good roles for actors like him in films as the reason for him not appearing much in films after 2001. He said in an interview on being queried about his decision to do TV serials: "The reach of TV is much more than cinema today and one episode of my serial is likely to be watched by more people than a super-hit film".[139] In May 2012, Havells, the fan making company endorsed Khanna as Brand Ambassador for their new ad campaign featuring him in solo advertisements.[140]
Khanna considered Guru Dutt, Meena Kumari and Geeta Bali to be his idols. Khanna said in an interview: "My inspirations include Dilip Kumar's dedication and intensity, Raj Kapoor's spontaneity, Dev Anand's style and Shammi Kapoor's rhythm."[32] In an interview given to The Hindu in 2011, Khanna specially mentioned Mahanayak Uttam Kumar, the greatest actor of Bengali cinema, as his idol. In that interview, Khanna also claimed that Uttam Kumar was the greatest living actor of his time.[141]
At the insistence of Rajiv Gandhi, Khanna started campaigning for Indian National Congress after 1984.[142] In the election for New Delhi seat in the 1991 Lok Sabha election, Khanna lost to L.K. Advani by a narrow margin of 1589 votes, after which Khanna stood on the grounds at the counting station insisting that he had been cheated of a win.[143] In 1992, a by-election was called after the resignation of the incumbent Member of Parliament L.K. Advani. Khanna contested the seat again, won the by-election by defeating Shatrughan Sinha by 25,000 votes.[144] Khanna was a member of Parliament for the Indian National Congress, from the New Delhi constituency, where he won the 1992 by-election, retaining his seat until 1996 after which he was not interested in active politics. When Khanna was MP, he did not accept new acting assignments, but only acted in the film Khudai (1994).[123] After leaving parliament, he was a political activist for the INC and campaigned for the party till the 2012 Punjab election.[145]
Khanna and a group of foreign investors bought land in Shirdi, on which he built a religious resort for disciples of Sai Baba.[146]
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Khanna fell in love with the then fashion designer and actress Anju Mahendru.[147] They were in a relationship for seven years. Khanna's sudden stardom and his insistence that Mahendru quit her acting career eventually ended their relationship.[148] Mahendru states that the couple did not speak to each other for 17 years after the break-up.[149]
Later Khanna – 31 at that time – married the budding actress Dimple Kapadia who was then 15 years old, in March 1973, before Kapadia's debut film Bobby released in September that year.[150] Khanna and Kapadia have two daughters from the marriage; Twinkle and Rinke.[151] Khanna and Kapadia separated in 1982, but never completed the divorce proceedings. According to Yasser Usman's biography of Khanna, the couple separated because Kapadia wished to return to acting. She had quit acting when she married Khanna since the latter wanted his partner to be a housewife. A few years after their marriage Kapadia decided to resume her career. However, Khanna remained adamant that his wife will not work. Kapadia eventually left Khanna and started her career in films.[152][153] Khanna and Kapadia however maintained an amicable relationship where they both were seen together at parties and family functions. Kapadia also campaigned for Khanna's election and worked in his film Jai Shiv Shankar (1990), although the film never got released.[154]
In the 1980s, Tina Munim was in love with Khanna. She had been a fan of him since her school days.[155] They appeared in ten films together between 1981 and 1986. According to website Bollywood Mantra, Khanna refused to marry her as their marriage would have a bad impact on his daughters. After Munim and Khanna parted ways, he resumed his friendship with Anju Mahendru.[148]
Khanna's elder daughter Twinkle Khanna, an interior decorator and a former film actress, is married to actor Akshay Kumar, while his younger daughter Rinke Khanna, also a former Hindi film actress,[156] is married to London-based investment banker Samir Saran.[157][158][159][160][161]
Khanna is regarded as one of the greatest actors of Indian cinema.[162] Khanna is noted for his acting, style, musicals and dance. One of the most successful and highest-paid actors of 1970s and 1980s, Khanna appeared in Box Office India's "Top Actors" list six times from 1969 to 1974. He topped the list thrice (1969–1971).[163] In 2022, he was placed in Outlook India's "75 Best Bollywood Actors" list.[164] Khanna was placed ninth among the "Greatest Bollywood Stars" in a UK poll celebrating 100 years of Indian cinema in 2013.[165] Khanna has the record for the most films as the solo lead hero in Hindi films – 106.[166]Rediff.com placed him 8th in its "Top 10 Bollywood Actors of All Time" list.[167] Khanna was named as one of "the men who changed the face of the Indian Cinema" by CNN-News18.[168] In 1973, BBC made a documentary on him, named Bombay Superstar as a part of the series, Man Alive.[169][170] A textbook prescribed by the Mumbai University contained an essay, "The Charisma of Rajesh Khanna!"[171]
Khanna acted alongside Mumtaz in ten films. She stated "I would pull his leg and tease him about his fan following. Whenever Rajesh entered a hotel in Madras, there was a queue of 600 girls waiting to see him at midnight. As a result, even I would get some importance, as people would ask for my autograph as well. He was very generous with his associates."[172] During the peak of his career, he would be mobbed during public appearances. Fans kissed his car, which would be covered with lipstick marks, and lined the road, cheering and chanting his name. Female fans sent him letters written in their blood.[173] Actor Mehmood parodied him in Bombay to Goa where the driver and conductor of the bus were called 'Rajesh' and 'Khanna' respectively. A scene of Amar Prem, to be shot at Howrah Bridge, was cancelled due to his popularity.[174] Film critic Monojit Lahiri said: "Girls married themselves to photographs of Khanna, cutting their fingers and applying the blood as sindoor. He was God, there has never been such hysteria."[175]
Kamal Haasan was a close friend of Khanna. Kamal in an interview, narrated his experience of Khanna's stardom, in an incident in 1985 – "He probably hadn't been to a public theatre since he became a star. When we reached, things were okay. He enjoyed the film (The Swarm) and refused to leave until the end titles. That's when I panicked. This was Rajesh Khanna, the star of the millennium. All hell broke loose as audiences realised he was there, his shirt was torn, but he was enjoying himself thoroughly. He giggled and chuckled like a child."[185]Shah Rukh Khan idolised Khanna and has opined; "Rajesh Khanna, you can't touch".[186]Anupam Kher said "Kishore Kumar, Sanjeev Kumar, S. D. Burman, R. D. Burman, Rajesh Khanna and Smita Patil changed the face of Indian cinema. They're remembered by the films that they did."[187] Actor Tom Alter confessed "I still dream of being Rajesh Khanna. For me, in the early 1970s, he was the only hero – romantic to the core, not larger than life, so Indian and real – he was my hero; the reason I came into films and he still is."[188] Actor Irrfan Khan stated in an interview, "The kind of craze witnessed by Rajesh Khanna has not been duplicated by anyone. He was the biggest and the most real star Bollywood has produced. I'd say stardom is that feeling of being possessed by your idol; you are so overwhelmed with euphoria you lose touch with reality."[189] The trend of wearing guru kurtas and belts on shirts became famous because of Khanna.[190] Actor Salman Khan has stated: "I, Shahrukh or Aamir have not even achieved 10% of what Khanna had in acting or his stardom."[191]
In June 2012, it was reported that Khanna's health had been deteriorating for some time.[192][193] On 23 June he was admitted to Lilavati HospitalinMumbai due to health complications. He was discharged on 8 July from the hospital and was reportedly fine.[194][195][196][197]
On 14 July, Khanna was readmitted to the Lilavati Hospital, but was discharged on 16 July.[198][199] He died on 18 July 2012, at his bungalow, Aashirwad, in Mumbai. Sources confirmed that his health had been deteriorating since July 2011 as he was diagnosed with cancer.[200][201] After his death his co-star Mumtaz said that he was suffering from cancer for the duration of the prior year and had undergone chemotherapy sessions.[202] His funeral took place on 19 July at 11:00.[9] His funeral ceremony was attended by 9 lakh (900,000) people and his fans came from places like Surat, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Pune, Bangalore and other countries.[203][204] Police had to resort to a lathi-charge to control the crowd of fans who had gathered for the procession from his Bandra house to the crematorium.[205] He died in the presence of his wife Dimple Kapadia, daughters Rinke Khanna and Twinkle Khanna, son-in-law Akshay Kumar, Grandchildren, Anju Mahendru and other close relatives.[206][207] His pyre was lit by his grandson, Aarav, with the assistance of Akshay Kumar.[208][209]Amitabh Bachchan cited that Rajesh Khanna's last words were "Time is up, Pack up".[210][211] In a pre-recorded message to his family, friends and fans that was played on his "chautha", he thanked and saluted his friends and fans for the love they showered on him and also shared how he became a successful actor without having any godfather behind him.[212][213] On 25 July 2012, his ashes were immersed in the GangesatRishikesh, Uttarakhand by his wife Dimple Kapadia and daughter Rinke Khanna.[214]
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^Bharatan, Raju (1994). "The Sound of RD's Music". panchamonline, (original The Times of India, 1994). Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 9 May 2013.