On veteran Bollywood actor Vinod Khannas birth anniversary on , heres a look back at some pictures of the star from his intriguing journey in showbiz.
Vinod Khanna was born in Peshawar, now part of Pakistan, on October 6, 1946. His father was a textiles and chemicals businessman. During his schooling days, Vinod Khanna watched films like Solva Saal (1958) and Mughal-e-Azam (1960), and developed a liking for Hindi cinema.
Vinod Khanna's debut in Hindi cinema, too, was in the form of a supporting role. It was another would-be MP, also from Punjab, who gave Khanna his first break. Sunil Dutt, it is said, was struck by Khanna's good looks and signed him up as a villain in his production Mann Ka Meet in 1968.
He was a villain, to begin with, but ended up as a hero with a legion of fans swooning over his good looks. For almost five decades, Vinod Khanna ruled the Hindi film world with his lush sideburns and dimpled chin, despite an active career in politics that began in 1997.
Vinod Khanna decided to try his hand at acting and debuted as a villain in Sunil Dutt's 1968 film Man Ka Meet. It wouldn't be wrong to say that Khanna was a hero who was overshadowed by a bigger star. In several films, Khanna acted with Amitabh Bachchan, and while the pair was a great success, the angry young man that Bachchan became synonymous with often stole the show.
Vinod Khanna, however, first made a mark as Shyam in Gulzar's 1971 film Mere Apne, where he stood out as a disillusioned young man. He got his first break as a hero in Hum Tum Aur Woh (1971). A great many films followed - including hits such as Elaan and Mera Gaon Mera Desh. Vinod Khanna was at his peak from the mid-70s to early 80s.
But Vinod Khanna shocked his fans when, at the height of his career, he left Bollywood to follow his spiritual guru, Osho Rajneesh, to Oregon in the United States in 1982.
Twitterati remembered how Vinod Khanna's Qurbani co-star Feroz Khan, too, died on the same day in 2009. Some also noted the eerie similarity between Vinod Khanna and Feroz Khan's death. Feroz Khan passed away from cancer too. In picture: Vinod Khanna with Rekha.
Vinod Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan, despite the competition, starred in blockbusters such as Amar Akbar Anthony, Parvarish, Reshma Aur Shera, Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, Zameer, Hera Pheri and Khoon Paseena. But Bachchan was the undisputed hero; Khanna, always the second man.
In picture: Vinod Khanna with Meenakshi Seshadri and others.
Vinod Khanna, who was born in a Punjabi family of textile merchants in Peshawar in 1946, chose Punjab to make his political debut in 1997 when he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He fought and won from Gurdaspur in Punjab - a seat that he lost only once in 2009 but won again in the 2014 general elections.
As a starry-eyed Vinod Khanna regaled his friends at the Barnes School in the British era cantonment township of Deolali in Maharashtra, many thought the young lad was cut out for an innings on the silver screen. "We thought that going by his acting skills and persona, Vinod will join Hollywood and not Bollywood, In picture: Actor-turned-politicians Sunil Dutt, Vinod Khanna and Raj Babbar.
In 2002, Atal Bihari Vajpayee made Vinod Khanna his culture and tourism minister. He was later given the external affairs portfolio.
