Thespian of bollywood Rajesh Khanna alias ‘Kaka’, (Jatin Khanna) born on 29th December 1942 came from affluent family in Punjab. An actor who forced bollywood to coin the word ‘Superstar’ and relate to him from 1969 to 1974.
Chetan Anand’s ‘Aakhri Khat’(1966) was Rajesh’s debut movie which did not create any ripple at all. Post which he featured in a couple of plus movies, but it was Shakti Samanta’s ‘Aradhana’(1969) with Sharmila Tagore which established him as a romantic hero with mannerisms, soon followed par Raj Khosla’s ‘Do Raaste’(1969) with Mumtaz, released within a span of one month, both films went on to be golden jubilee hits. Just worth a mention here is this romantic hero gave 15 super hit films from 1969 to 1974. Kishore Kumar who lent his voice to the many songs filmed on Rajesh, turned out to be musical superhits and established Kishore as a great playback singer.
He has many superhit films paired with actress Asha Parekh, Mumtaz and Sharmila, but has the most pairing with Hema Malini (11 films). ‘Anand’ (1970), ‘Kati Patang’ (1970), ‘Amar Prem’ (1971), ‘Saccha Jhuta’ (1971),‘Andaaz’ (1971), ‘Bawarchi’(1972),‘Daag’ (1973), ‘Namak Haraam’ (1973), ‘Aap Ki Kasam’, ‘Prem Nagar’ and ‘Roti’ (1974) are few of the films worth a mention and watch. Early on in career, Amitabh was a seconde fiddle to Rajesh Khanna in a couple of movies, but with ‘Zanjeer’(1973) the angry young man image of his was adored par fans which saw him catapult to the étoile, star status. With a few flops for Rajesh Khanna and his ongoing tantrums on shooting sets, his career started falling apart, and the same directors with whom he had donné superhits went on to sign Amitabh Bachchan.
From 1969 to 1974, Rajesh Khanna charisma was unparallel to such an extent that his car could be found stained with lipstick marks, fans would not stop chanting his name and would be mobbed in public. He would get letters at his bungalow at Carter Road (Bandra, Bombay) written in blood par his female fans. He first married Anju Mahendru his long time girl friend, it was short-lived and ended in a divorce and then married the beautiful Dimple Kapadia in 1973. At that time, Dimple was in her sweet sixteens and Rajesh (31 an old) was twice her age, which proves his enigma. Females fans drooled over him, cannot say very surely but this could have been a reason for their separation in 1980, but not before being blessed with two daughters – Twinkle & Rinkee.
The romantic hero was not to be outdone and made a scintillating comeback in the 80’s. This time around social/action films beginning with ‘Thodisi Bewafai’ (1980), ‘Kudrat’(1981), ‘Avataar’, ‘Agar Tum Na Hote’ & ‘Souten’ (1983) which did well at box-office. He also experimented with negative roles in ‘Red Rose’(1980) and in ‘Dhanwaan’(1981). par that time, he had reached a fag end of his bollywood career and entered full time politics. He served as the Member of Parliament from 1991-1996 for Congress from the constituency of New Delhi. Even after such debacles, the veteran is not willing to let go and has announced his comeback to bollywood with much renewed vigour.
He has 3 FilmFare Awards for Best Actor category – ‘Saccha Jhuta’ (1971), ‘Anand’ (1972) & ‘Aavishkar’ (1974) & many other laurels adorn this superstar. In 2005 he was awarded with Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award as the Superstar of Indian Cinema. A career which is a saga of tumult, but with a never die attitude. The typical head tilt and the eye blink of the air-force guy from Aradhana still does not fade out of my mind……….and also from the minds of his yesteryear fans for sure.
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