Rajesh Khanna

Rajesh Khanna whose real life name was Jatin Khanna was born 29 December in the year 1942 in Amritsar, Punjab, India. He was a Bollywood actor, film producer and a politician. He was often referred to as the first superstar in India and regarded as the original superstar of Indian cinema.

He earned fame and these titles after giving 15 consecutive solo based hit films in the 1970's which is a record that still remains unbroken. Khanna is also regarded as one of the utmost and most influential actors in the account of Indian cinema. He has appeared in a total of 180 films out of which 163 were feature films and 17 were short films. By the year 2011, he held the record for being an actor with maximum solo hero Hindi films with a total of 106 films.

He won three Filmfare Best Actor Awards and was nominated for the same category for fourteen times. He also received the BFJA Awards for Best Actor in Hindi and was nominated 25 times for the same. He was renowned as the highest paid Indian actor of his time in the period 1970–79 and also shared the same honor with ace actor Amitabh Bachchan in the period 1980–87.

Debut Film Awards Enumeration Career Personal Life During the event of United Talent Hunt contest conducted by the Filmfare magazine in the year 1965 there were four winners namely Subhash Ghai, Dheeraj Kumar, Farida Jalal and of course the superstar Rajesh Khanna. Among the judges was the veteran filmmaker director B.R.Chopra who had a very great eye for new talent. Hence he noticed that this good-looking young man stood out from the rest and he also showed the same fire which he had seen in actor Dilip Kumar after watching his debut movie Jwar Bhatta in the year 1944. At that time B.R.Chopra was a successful journalist and not a filmmaker. Still he immediately signed Rajesh Khanna for his movie named Raaz opposite actress Babita. This film did not do well at the the box office level,but became a critically acclaimed movie and Rajesh Khanna's performance as an actor was very much appreciated in the film. Awards: He was the winner for the following films: Anand at BFJA Awards in the year 1972 Bawarchi at BFJA Awards in the year 1973 Namak Haraam at BFJA Awards 1975 Amrit at BFJA Awards in the year 1987 Sachcha Jhutha at Filmfare Awards in the year 1970 Anand at Filmfare Awards in the year 1971 Avishkaar Filmfare Awards (1974) Awards: He was given the Lifetime Achievement Award at: Filmfare Awards in the year 2009 State Awards in the year 2005 Screen weekly Awards in the year 2004 He was reportedly the highest paid actor of his time. 60lakhs rupees was his salary for a film in the year 1989. It was in the year 1960's there came an euphoria, a blind craze, a huge tidal wave which swept the whole genre of womankind with those mischievous crinkling eyes, the elegant shake of the head and the enigmatic smile. It belonged to none other than the yesteryear superstar Rajesh Khanna, who on later with an amazing power of fan following, went on to create a history of sorts in the Indian film industry. He was born in Amritsar, Punjab on 29th December 1942, Jatin Khanna was adopted by his parents and hence was also pampered right from the start. Though Rajesh Khanna began his film career with petty movies like Akhri Khat in the year 1966 and Raaz in the year 1967, once the movie Aradhna in the year 1969 was released, he created and spread a frenzy in the masses that remained unfazed long after. There was no understandable rationale for the Rajesh Khanna miracle. He didn`t really have the predictable good looks, yet the boy-next-door plead and the charisma generated through his flashy eyes and heady smile were enough to ensure the birth of a super duper star. He began his rule over the Bollywood town when both his films Aradhana and Do Raaste ran well simultaneously in the same year 1969 and became golden jubilee hits. A wave of stupendous hits like the films Safar, Sachcha Jhutha and Kati Patang followed within the year 1970. He could mostly play the playful or the tragic romantic hero effortlessly with equal grace on his character. Khanna did put an end to the actor Shammi Kapoor's era, when he strengthened his position as the king of the box office by giving a hat-trick of hits in 1971 by the character Andaz, Anand and Amar Prem. Khanna immortalized himself by portraying himself as Anand where he played the poignant role of a determinedly cheerful chatterbox guy, hiding and living under the shadow of a fatal disease. He gave brilliant performances in the films Bawarchi in the year 1972, Namak Haram in the year 1973 Daag and Aan Milo Sajna in the year 1973. Films like Prem Nagar in the year 1974, Aap Ki Kasam in the year 1974 and Mehbooba in the year 1976 also won him a lot of accolades for his performances. With an appetite for creating headlines, he created a big furore in the media by getting married to the nubile Bobby girl Dimple Kapadia, overnight by splitting from his longtime girlfriend Anju Mahendru. All the media focussed on him and anything that he did was made into hot news. But then as many say change happened to them all. The success he got by now had seemingly gone to his head, and thereafter, he saw his decline – in both the aspects professionally and personally. Post the year 1974, though he acted in many movies, his era of ruling the roost started to decline with the onslaught of the new young man Amitabh Bachchan's entry, who brought aggression and fire to the screen against the lovely romantic Rajesh with mannerisms that now looked jaded and repetitive. This was also followed by the unpleasant event of split in his marriage with Dimple. In a fraught attempt to regain his past lost glory he even tried pairing up and acting with much younger actresses like Sridevi, Padmini Kolhapure, Tina Munim who even happened to be his love interest for a quite long time, but all in vain. With a mix up of flops and occasional hits like the films Thodi si Bewafai in the year 1980, Agar Tum Na Hote in the year 1983, Avtaar in the year 1983, Souten in the year 1983 he managed to survive. But after that, he was seen very less and less on screen. He was loved in his final comeback vehicle Aa Ab Laut Chalen in the year 1999 due to his subtle and polished performance. Meanwhile, both his daughters named Twinkle and Rinkie Khanna too joined Bollywood industry. He remolded his career as a politician and won an election from a Delhi constituency and became a Member of Parliament. But later, he was defeated in the next election which disillusioned him further and then he made a big comeback in one of the serials on television, to reach a wider audience. Years may have passed by, blockbusters may have happened, the film galaxy may have produced several other stars, but those who have has seen him in his heydays still believe that there was or there still is no one like him. In the late 1960's and the early 1970's, Rajesh Khanna fell in love with the fashion designer and actress Anju Mahendru. They both were in a relationship for whole seven years. Mahendru stated that the couple did not speak to each other much for 17 years after their break-up. Later Rajesh Khanna married the budding bubbly actress Dimple Kapadia in March in the year 1973, even before Kapadia's debut film Bobby got released in November of that year. They have two daughters from the marriage named Twinkle and Rinke. Khanna and Kapadia had split in the year 1984 but did not complete the divorce proceedings properly. In the 1980's Tina Munim was very much romantically involved with Khanna till the time she decided to leave the industry to pursue her higher studies outside India. Khanna and Kapadia however maintained a very amicable relationship as they both were seen together at a lot of parties and family functions together from the year 1990 to the year 2012. Kapadia also campaigned for Rajesh Khanna's election and worked in his film named Jai Shiv Shankar in the year 1990. Khanna's elder daughter named Twinkle Khanna who is an interior decorator and a former film actress, is married to ace actor Akshay Kumar while his younger daughter Rinke Khanna who is also a former Hindi film actress is married to a London-based investment banker named Samir Saran. On 17th July 2012, a woman named Anita Advani claimed herself to be the live-in partner of Khanna and sent a legal notice to his family members asking for the right compensation. However on 9 August 2012 his family has sent a reply that Anita Advani's claims were all very untrue and that she was not his live-in partner ever. Rajesh Khanna breathed his last on July 18, 2012 after being critically ill for quite sometime.