A Biography Of Vinod Khanna
Vinod Khanna, a noted Indian film actor, producer and then a politician, was born in Peshawar to a Punjabi family on the 6th of October, 1946. He has three sisters and a brother. He has acted in a total of 137 films out of which 54 are solo hero films and the remaining consisted of two lead actors.
The country was partitioned shortly after his birth and the family had to leave Peshawar and migrate to Mumbai. His father K.C. Khanna was a textile, dyes and chemical merchant. Vinod went to Queen Mary's School till the second standard and then moved on to St. Xavier's High School. Considered a teacher’s pet, Vinod excelled in studies and was a favorite among the teachers. In 1957, the Khanna family moved to Delhi and he was admitted to Delhi Public School on Mathura Road. While in standard IX, the family again shifted base back to Mumbai and he was sent to Barnes School in Deolali, which was a boarding school close to Nashik. His school days were spent in studying, theatre and plenty of sports. It was during his school days in Deolali that he watched the film Mughal-e-Azam and was completely bowled over. He slowly started having a strong penchant for motion pictures. He graduated from Sydenham College with a degree in commerce.
Personal life
Vinod Khanna has quite often been described as an unsung hero. Despite being extremely good looking and popular along with the best of films, he never reached the heights of success like his two contemporaries Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra. However, he was considered a class apart on account of his attitude and his inclination for taking risks. He once said that he chooses to live by spirit and not by the script of life.
Khanna tied the knot with Geetanjali in 1971. She bore him two sons Rahul Khanna and Akshaye Khanna. Khanna became a devoted follower of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in the year 1975 and called himself Osho’s “mali”. He spent four years with his guru attending to his beck and call. Osho was regarded as a sex guru and Vinod was thus referred to as the ‘sexy sanyasi’. He was the only Indian to have stayed with Osho in Rajneeshpuram (Osho’s commune in America). He spent his time cleaning dishes, washing clothes and gardening.
During his stay in Rajneeshpuram, he stayed in touch with his family over the phone. This phase however, turned out to be a terrible one since people would tell his sons that their father had run away with Osho. These reports eventually started having a huge impact on the Khanna family and thus Vinod and Geetanjali decided to divorce. Khanna married Kavita in 1990 and they have a son Sakshi and a daughter Shraddha.
Professional Life
Vinod Khanna got a break in films at a party when he was noticed by the legendary Sunil Dutt. Dutt offered him a role in films which he was making for his brother, Somu. Vinod once said that his father put up a stiff resistance towards his advancement in Bollywood and threatened to shoot him. However, his mother came to his rescue and convinced his father to let their son join the film industry.
His first film was Sunil Dutt’s ‘Man Ka Meet’ in 1968 where he took upon the role of a villain. During the beginning of his career, he took up the roles of a supporting actor and villain in super hit films like ‘Purab Aur Paschim’ (1970), ‘Sachaa Jhutha’ (1970) and ‘Mera Gaon Mera Desh’ (1971).
The audience loved him on account of his charming personality and soon he started getting offers for lead roles. It is to be noted that he is one the few Indian actors to have made a successful transition from negative to positive roles. The year 1971 gave him a big break with ‘Mere Apne’ directed by Gulzar. Another film directed by Gulzar, “Achanak’ in 1973, where Khanna was portrayed as an army officer facing death penalty, received wide recognition.
Some of his hit movies in the 1970s include ‘Muqaddar Ka Sikander’, ‘Parvarish’, and ‘Hera Pheri’ among others. He quit the film industry in 1982 for five years and became a disciple of Osho, having reached his peak in Bollywood. Following his divorce with Geetanjali, he came back to the film industry in 1987 and acted opposite Dimple Kapadia in the movie ‘Insaaf’, which turned out to be a massive hit. In the period between 1987 to 1994 he worked as a hero in numerous solo and multi starrer movies like ‘Satyamev Jayate’(1987), Chandni (1989) and ‘Eena Meen Deeka’ released in the year 1984.
Life in Politics
Khanna joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 1997 and was elected from Punjab’s Gurdaspur constituency in the following year’s Lok Sabha poll. He was re-elected in 1999 to the Lok Sabha from the same constituency. In July 2002 he became the Union Minister for culture and tourism and moved to MEA as a minister of state six months later. However, he was defeated in the Lok Sabha poll of 2009.
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