As the actor who renounced success Vinod Khanna turns 64, we go through his life in pics…
As the actor who renounced success Vinod Khanna turns 64, we go through his life in pics…
Vinod Khanna was born into a joint family in 1946 to Kamla and KC Khanna, a businessman who dealt in textiles, dyes and chemicals. He was one of five children. He changed a lot of schools and finally graduated from Sydenham College.
After he had carved a niche for himself in Bollywood with few above average movies like Purab aur Pashchim and Mere Apne, Vinod Khanna married Geetanjali.
The couple have two sons together, Rahul Khanna and Akshaye Khanna.
At the peak of his career in Bollywood, Vinod renounced all wordly pleasure and became a disciple of Osho (Acharya Rajneesh).
In the early 1980s, he moved to Rajneeshpuram, in the United States, cleaning dishes and working as Osho's gardener.
Many speculated that his exile caused damage to his marriage, which finally ended in divorce in 1985 after 15 years of matrimony.
In 1990, he married Kavita Daftary.
They have a son and a daughter.
Khanna debuted in Sunil Dutt's Man Ka Meet in 1968 as a villain. He shared the screen space with Leena Chandavarkar.
He played supporting and/or negative roles in a lot of multi-starrers like Purab Aur Paschim (1970), Sachaa Jhutha (1970) and Mera Gaon Mera Desh (1971).
But the actor was still waiting for a real break.
He got the role of his dreams in the 1971 film Mere Apne directed by Gulzar, where he had a supporting role with Meena Kumari as the lead.
His performance as a Navy officer awaiting death sentence in another Gulzar movie Achanak was critically acclaimed. The film was based on the true life story of K. M. Nanavati vs. State of Maharashtra . Khanna portrayed Kawas Nanavati, the real life Navy officer.
In 1977, Manmohan Desai's Parvarish which starred him with Amitabh Bachchan, Neetu Singh and Shabana Azmi became one of the highest grossing films of the year. As Kishen with a negative shade to his character, Khanna was really convincing and received accolades.
1977 was a good year for the actor. Amar Akbar Anthony was huge on the box office and it seemed like the Manmohan Desai-Amitabh-Vinod combo was working.
Besides Rakesh Kumar's Khoon Pasina, where he again appeared with Amitabh, the other major hit was Muqaddar ka Sikander in 1978. No guesses on who the other lead actor was in the movie: Amitabh Bachchan, again!
In 1980 his multi-starrer The Burning Train was released. The plot revolves around a fast train named Super Fast Express, which catches fire on its inaugural run from New Delhi to Mumbai.
The same year, Vinod Khanna, Feroz Khan and Zeenat Aman came together for Qurbani. Khanna's role was initially offered to Amitabh Bachchan, who had refused. The movie is remembered for many things, the scene showing the calculated decimation of a Mercedes Benz in an underground parking lot being one of them.
It was around this time, when he was one of the most successful actors in Bollywood, that he renounced the world and left the industry.
He rejoined the industry, eight years later in mid 1980s.
In Dayavan (1988), the Hindi remake of the Tamil movie Nayagan, one of the most talked about things was Khanna sharing a passionate kiss with the beautiful Madhuri Dixit. The movie was directed by Feroz Khan.
Opposite Rishi Kapoor and Sridevi, Vinod Khanna delivered a breathtaking performance in Yash Chopra's blockbuster Chandni. The film won the National Film Award for the Best Popular Film of that year and the songs of the film became a rage.
Ekka Raja Rani only saw him in a supporting role, but as the blundering bank robber in Eena Meena Deeka, he gave a decent performance.
In 1997, he launched his son, Akshaye into the industry with Himalay Putra, which he produced and starred in. Akshaye is a well-known Bollywood actor today.
In recent times he has acted in many movies like Deewanapan (2001), playing Dia Mirza's father, Risk (2007) with Randeep Hooda and 99 (2009), which was based on the cricket controversies of 1999.
He was also seen playing minor supporting roles with Salman Khan in Wanted(2009) and the blockbuster Dabangg(2010).
He has also acted as the lead in the Hindi serial Mere Apne produced by Smriti Irani, who is also the female lead on the show.
In 1997, he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and was elected from Gurdaspur constituency in Punjab in the next year's Lok Sabha poll.
Later, he became the Union Minister for Culture and Tourism in July 2002. Six months later, he was moved to the more important Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) as Minister of State. In 2004 he was re-elected from Gurdaspur.
