Nation pays homage to Rajesh Khanna

Rajesh Khanna»

Date of Birth

29 December 1942, Amritsar, Punjab, India

Birth Name

Jatin Khanna

Nickname

Kaka
RK

King of Romance
Superstar of Indian Cinema

Height

5' 9" (1.75 m)

Mini Biography

Rajesh Khanna, the superstar of Indian Cinema, entered Hindi films in the latter half of the 1960s. He first tasted success with hit films like Baharoan Ke Sapne, Raaz and Aurat and he was appreciated for his performances in Aakhri Khat.Rajesh Khanna achieved overnight super-stardom with Shakti Samantha's 'Aradhana" (1969). His role in Khamoshi were greatly appreciated.He became the craze of the nation, and critics started calling him the First Superstar of both Indian Cinema (No. 1 Actor) and Hindi Films and remained so alone as the Superstar for 7 years (1969-1975) and had to share the status with Amitabh from 1977-1991 till he left films to join politics in 1991.

 

Anju Mahendru was his girl friend in 1966-1972, the then aspiring actress but they had breakup in 1972 when Anju was not ready for marriage and Khanna married his fan Dimple Kapadia in March 1973, 8 months before Raj Kapoor's Bobby released in theaters.

Khanna's pairing with Mumtaz always produced much success as they had all of their eight films together as major golden jubilee hits.His films with Sharmila Tagore, Asha Parekh and Zeenat Aman was a favorite with audiences too in 70's.

From 1976 onwards till 1978, his films started flopping unexpectedly although his performances and the film's music were praised by critics and thereby his successful run at the box office ended.

Khanna bounced back with Amardeep and then again started giving many critically acclaimed and commercially successful films starting from 1979 till 1991.K.Balaji , Tamil film actor and producer, wanted to establish himself in Hindi film industry as a producer and thereby wanted to remake his Tamil film Dheepam, which had starred Sivaji Ganeshan in the lead role, in Hindi. At a time when Khanna's films were not working at the box office, Khanna got this film out of the blue and went on to become a big hit.In the 80's his films opposite Tina Munim, Hema Malini, Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil and Poonam Dhillon were big hits.

 He produced three films and co-produced 3 films. He left film industry in 1991 and entered politics by joining the Congress Party in 1991 and became a member of parliament. Khanna was awarded Filmfare Special award in 1991 for having starred in 101 films as the solo lead hero and just 21 two hero films in short span of 25 years. He is still adored and fondly remembered by the masses. Songs from his films adorn the lips of youth and adolescents. He was the first mega-star and has left behind a storehouse of the finest moments in film history.

Spouse

Dimple Kapadia

(1973 - 1984) (separated) 2 children

Trivia

Hindi megastar

Father of actresses Twinkle Khanna and Rinke Khanna. Became a grandfather when Twinkle gave birth to a son, Araav in 2002 and then again in 2004 when Rinke gave birth to a daughter.

He was adopted by his rich parents who were relatives of biological parents.

Rajesh Khanna was Member of Parliament for New Delhi constituency from 1991-1996. He has been a Congress activist since 1990 and has campaigned for Congress party since 1984 at the insistence of Rajiv Gandhi.

Enjoyed a godlike status in the period 1969-1976 with female fans writing letters in blood to him that is for eight years. The hysteria was unique and unseen before Khanna came into the film industry.

Jeetendra and Rajesh Khanna studied as batch-mates in same school St. Sebastian Goan High School in Girgaum and went to Kishinchand Chellaram College for college. Khanna recommended actor Jeetendra to go into movies and even taught Jeetendra how to by heart and deliver lines in drama and films.

Father-in-law of superstar Akshay Kumar.

He is a life member of International Film And Television Research Centre and International Film And Television Club Of Asian Academy Of Film And Television.

Known as the first Superstar of Hindi Cinema. He formed a great team with Singer Kishore Kumar and Music Director R D Burman and together they have given such songs which are immensely popular even today.Pancham composed music for 40 films of Rajesh Khanna and Kishore sang in 91 films for Khanna. The RD-Kishore- Rajesh Khanna combination worked in 32 films.

 Rajesh Khanna holds record for most number of win for Best actor award in Bengal Film Journalist Association Awards (4 awards) and most number of nominations in BFJA awards (25 nominations) for Best Actor. He has won Filmfare Best Actor Awards for 3 times and was nominated for 14 times.

The pair Rajesh Khanna-Mumtaz holds the record for being the only romantic on screen pair in both Indian and Hindi Cinema to have had 100% success ratio at the box office. Rajesh Khanna has 8 blockbusters opposite Mumtaz.

Rajesh Khanna used to sit for music sessions with the music directors and singers for the films with him in lead role. He used to select the tune best suited for the film and used to give suggestions to the music directors.

Rajesh Khanna stood by the bad times of R.D.Burman in the late eighties and ensured producers of his films take R.D.Burman as the music director for his film. Even after death of Kishore Kumar, Rajesh Khanna worked with R.D.Burman till R.D's death. Similarly Khanna backed Kishore Kumar, during Kishore's lean phase as playback singer and insisted to producers and composers to make Kishore sing songs in his films.

Kishore Kumar and R.D.Burman were Rajesh Khanna's closest friends in the film industry. He always insisted on having Anand Bakshi as the lyricist of the songs in his films.

Highest paid Indian actor in 1970-1979 and shared the highest paid actor tag with Amitabh in 1980-1987 period.

Khanna has done 180 films in 40 years from 1966-2011. Of them 163 are feature films as an actor and 17 short films.

His only Punjabi movie as the solo lead hero Til Til Da Lekha released in 1979, won the Punjab State Government award and was a Golden Jubilee Hit.The Punjabi film Sawa Lakh Se Ek Ladaun in 1976 had Khanna in special appearance for a Qawalli song and it turned out to be a biggest box office hit of 1976.

 

Had 35 Golden Jubliee hits in short span of 1967-1975. In 1976-1978 his only Golden Jubliee Hits were Til Til Dalekha, Anurodh, Chhailla Babu. In 1979-1991 he had 35 more Golden Jubliee hits.

Rajesh Khanna had 73 Golden Jubliee Hits and 22 Silver Jubliee Hits from 1967-1991.

Aakhri Khat, Rajesh Khanna's first ever released film, was selected for the Oscars in the best foreign language entry in 1967.

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Hindi Cinema wouldn’t have been the same had there been no Rajesh Khanna in it. Sure, there were stars before like Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Raj Kapoor who are till date called the stalwarts, but the phenomenon called Rajesh Khanna sort of changed the way a fan treated his favourite star.

The man gave what Indian cinema needed. A superstar. And boy, did the country swoon over him or what? His aura, his style of delivering dialogues, his trademark side tilt while wooing heroines, his hairstyle - everything was lapped by the hungry fans. Everything was copied and worshipped.

Born as Jatin Khanna in Amritsar on 29 December, 1942, the superstar was raised by foster parents who were relatives of his biological parents. The young Jatin was always keen on acting and took part in school and college theatre. He also happened to inspire his childhood friend Ravi Kapoor to take up acting, who later went on to become a star in his own right - actor Jeetendra.

 Rest in peace Kaka.