Rajesh Khanna (pronounced [ɾɑːd͡ʒeːʃ kʰənnɑː] ; born Jatin Khanna; 29 December 1942 – 18 July 2012) was an Indian actor, film producer and politician who worked in Hindi films. Regarded as one of the greatest and most successful actors in the history of Indian cinema, he is considered the first Superstar of Hindi cinema. His accolades include five Filmfare Awards, and in 2013, he was posthumously awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honour.
Khanna made his acting debut in 1966 with Aakhri Khat, which was India's first official Academy Awards entry in 1967.
Khanna saw his rise to superstardom in 1969 with romantic musical Aradhana starring Sharmila Tagore. The film went to become a massive blockbuster at the box office and made him an overnight sensation. The same year, romantic family drama Do Raaste opposite Mumtaz also released. These films turned Khanna into a Superstar and marked the beginning of Rajesh Khanna Mania of the early-1970s. He continued his domination at the box office in 1970 and 1971 with films, such as – The Train, Sachaa Jhutha, Safar, Aan Milo Sajna, Kati Patang, Mehboob Ki Mehndi, Anand, Andaz, Maryada, Haathi Mere Saathi, Chhoti Bahu and Khamoshi, eventually giving 17 consecutive successes in a span of three years, a record which remains unbroken to date.
In 2005, he was honoured with the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award on the 50th anniversary of the Filmfare Awards. He was a Member of Parliament in the 10th Lok Sabha from New Delhi Lok Sabha constituency between 1992 and 1996, elected in the 1992 New Delhi by-election as an Indian National Congress candidate. He married Dimple Kapadia in March 1973, eight months before her debut film Bobby was released and had two daughters from the marriage. Their older daughter Twinkle Khanna is a former actress, who is married to actor Akshay Kumar, while their younger daughter Rinke Khanna is also a former actress. Khanna died on 18 July 2012, after a period of illness.
Rajesh Khanna was born on 29 December 1942, in Amritsar, in the Punjab Province of British India (now in Punjab, India), as 'Jatin Khanna' into a Punjabi Hindu Khatri family. He was adopted and raised by Chunnilal Khanna and Leelawati Khanna, who were relatives of his biological parents.
Khanna's biological parents were Lala Hiranand Khanna and Chandrani Khanna. His father had migrated from the Vehari District in West Punjab (now in Pakistan) to Gali Tiwarian in Amritsar. Lala worked as headmaster of the MC High School in Burewala. His adoptive parents belonged to a family of railway contractors who had moved from Lahore to Bombay in 1935. Khanna lived in Saraswati Niwas in Thakur-dwar, near Girgaon, Mumbai.
Khanna attended St. Sebastian's Goan High School with his friend Ravi Kapoor, who later took the stage name Jeetendra. Khanna gradually started taking an interest in theatre, did many stage and theatre plays in his school and college days, and won many prizes in inter-college drama competitions.
In 1962 Khanna played a wounded mute soldier in the play Andha Yug and impressed with his performance; the chief guest suggested that he get into films soon. Khanna became a rare newcomer who had his own MG sports car, who once struggled to get work in theatre and films in the early 1960s.
Khanna did his first two years of Bachelor of Arts at Nowrosjee Wadia College in Pune from 1959 to 1961. He later studied at Kishinchand Chellaram College, Mumbai and Jeetendra studied at Siddharth Jain College. Khanna tutored Jeetendra for his first film audition. Khanna's uncle KK Talwar changed Khanna's first name to Rajesh when he decided to enter films. His friends and his wife called him Kaka (meaning a baby faced boy in Punjabi).
Rajesh Khanna was one of eight finalists from more than 10,000 contestants in the 1965 All India Talent Contest, organised by United Producers and Filmfare, along with other FTII students Subhash Ghai and Dheeraj Kumar. Khanna won the contest along with Farida Jalal.
Vinod Mehra was also among the finalists. Rajesh Khanna won the contest by one point.
BR Chopra, Bimal Roy, GP Sippy, HS Rawail, Nasir Husain, J.Om Prakash, Mohan Saigal, Shakti Samanta and Subodh Mukherji and others had created the United Producers organisation and were then judges of the contest.
He made his film debut in the 1966 film Aakhri Khat, directed by Chetan Anand, followed by Raaz (1967), directed by Ravindra Dave, both of which were a part of his predetermined prize for winning the All-India United Producers' Talent Competition. G.P. Sippy and Nasir Hussain were the first to sign Khanna after he won the contest.
Being under contract with United Producers, he got projects, such as Aurat (1967) and Baharon Ke Sapne (1967), of which latter did break even and the former was commercially successful.
The year 1969 proved to be a game changer for Khanna and saw his rise to superstardom. It began with Shakti Samanta's romantic musical Aradhana starring Sharmila Tagore. The film went to become a massive blockbuster at the box office and made him an overnight sensation. Its soundtrack composed by S. D. Burman and lyrics written by Anand Bakshi was the third best-selling Hindi film album of the 1960s and made Kishore Kumar the leading playback singer of Hindi cinema. That same year, he starred in Raj Khosla's romantic family drama Do Raaste opposite Mumtaz. Backed up with chartbuster songs, including "Yeh Reshmi Zulfen", "Bindiya Chamkegi", "Chup Gaye Saare Nazaare", it went on to become a Blockbuster, in turn making Khanna and Mumtaz a hit pair. In the United Kingdom, the film was released in 1970. It became the first Indian film to gross £100,000 in the UK, equivalent to ₹900,000 (US$118,940.64). Its UK box office record was broken a year later by Purab Aur Paschim, which released in the UK in 1971. The huge box office success of Aradhana and Do Raaste was followed by a superhit in Narendra Bedi's romantic drama Bandhan again with Mumtaz, a hit in Yash Chopra's songless mystery thriller Ittefaq co-starring Nanda, followed by another successful film, Doli alongside Babita to go with the major grossers. These films turned Khanna into a Superstar and marked the beginning of Rajesh Khanna Mania of the early-1970s. He continued his domination at the box office in 1970 and 1971 with films, such as – The Train, Sachaa Jhutha, Safar, Aan Milo Sajna, Kati Patang, Mehboob Ki Mehndi, Anand, Andaz, Maryada, Haathi Mere Saathi, Chhoti Bahu and Khamoshi, eventually giving 17 consecutive successes in a span of three years, a record which remains unbroken to date. Khanna won his first Filmfare Award for Best Actor for playing a double role in Sachaa Jhutha. He won his second Filmfare Award for Best Actor and first BFJA Award for Best Actor (Hindi) for portraying a cancer-patient in Anand which is also considered his career-best performance by many of his fans as well as critics.
Khanna began the next year with Dulal Guha's drama film Dushmun. It opened to excellent audience response and emerged a blockbuster as well as one of the highest-earning films of the year. Dushmun was later remade in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada. For portraying a rash truck driver in the film, Khanna received a nomination in the Filmfare Award for Best Actor category. His next release, the action drama Apna Desh also performed very well at the box office. It also had some highly popular songs like "Duniya Mein Logon Ko", "Kajra Lagake Gajra Sajake", "Ro Na Kabhi Nahin Rona". In the late 1972, Khanna's amazing run came to an abrupt halt with release of Badnaam Farishte. As per the book The Most Versatile Superstar Actor of Hindi Cinema, he had 10 hits in 1972 which included Shehzada, Mere Jeevan Saathi, Bawarchi, Apna Desh, Amar Prem, Joroo Ka Ghulam, Bangaru Babu, Anuraag except Maalik which was box office flop. Out of them, Hrishikesh Mukherjee's musical comedy drama Bawarchi is regarded as a cult classic today and was remade in many Indian languages, including Hindi itself. It also won Khanna his second BFJA Award for Best Actor (Hindi). In 1973, his first release was Sachin Bhowmick's romantic drama Raja Rani in which he starred alongside his Aradhana co-star Sharmila Tagore which ended up as a commercially successful venture. Khanna then played a brief role in Samanta's Anuraag, which went on to become a blockbuster and won him Filmfare Special Award. After this, he reunited with Tagore for Yash Chopra's maiden production and sixth directional venture Daag: A Poem of Love which also had Rakhee in the lead. Inspired from Thomas Hardy's novel The Mayor of Casterbridge, it was a major critical and commercial success, eventually emerging a blockbuster and laying the foundation of Yash Raj Films (which is the biggest production house in India till today). Its soundtrack composed by Laxmikant–Pyarelal dominated the musical charts and was one of the best-selling Hindi film albums of the 1970s. His final release that year was the social drama film Namak Haraam, which also received positive response and was superhit at the box office. Khanna received his fifth nomination in the best actor category at the Filmfare Awards for Daag and won his third BFJA Award for Best Actor (Hindi) for Namak Haraam. 1974 was a great year for Khanna with both critical and commercial appreciation coming his way. His first film Humshakal did not do well, but his second release Aap Ki Kasam which was also J. Om Prakash's debut as a filmmaker proved to be a superhit. All of its songs were major hits too, especially "Zindagi Ke Safar Mein Guzar Jate Hain Jo Maqaam" sung by Kishore Kumar. This was followed by Prem Nagar which was a remake of Akkineni Nageswara Rao's all time Telugu hit Prema Nagar (1971). Prem Nagar opened to excellent response from the audience, eventually doing more business than Khanna's last major hit Aap Ki Kasam and emerging a blockbuster. Basu Bhattacharya's art-house film Avishkaar and Shakti Samanta's crime thriller Ajanabee were his next two releases. Both Ajanabee and Avishkaar did reasonable business, the later again opposite Sharmila Tagore earned huge critical acclaim and won Khanna his third Filmfare Award for Best Actor for his subtle portrayal of a disillusioned husband. His last film of the year was Manmohan Desai's action drama Roti which released alongside another biggie Roti Kapada Aur Makaan, but still went on to become a blockbuster. Due to its huge success, Roti was also remade in Telugu as Neram Nadi Kadu Akalidi (1976).