Vinod Khanna: 10 lesser known facts of Bollywood celeb

Vinod Khanna was born in Peshawar (now in Pakistan) on October 6 1946. After partition his family moved to Mumbai and Vinod Khanna’s father headed a business in textiles.

Like many Indians, Vinod Khanna’s first love was cricket and not films! The ‘Amar’ of Bollywood was addicted to cricket but his passion for Bollywood films landed him on the silver screen.

‘Qurbani’ (1980), one of Vinod Khanna’s biggest career hits, was first offered to Amitabh Bachchan. After Big B turned down the role, Vinod Khanna lapped up the offer.

Vinod Khanna apparently enjoyed the highest pay in Bollywood in the 1980s, at a time when the entertainment industry was thriving with celebrity Hindi cinema stars like Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra.

At the peak of his career, Vinod Khanna quit the industry, became a disciple of Osho Rajneesh and shifted to Pune to follow his passion, spirituality, where he used to complete his shoot commitments on the sidelines.

Vinod Khanna later settled in Rajneeshpuram Ashram in the USA, from 1982 to 1985. He was renamed Swami Vinod Bharti, who cleaned dishes, chopped vegetables and worked as a gardener as a follower of Osho in the US. Leaving behind his first wife Geetanjali and kids Rahul and Akshaye Khanna to follow Osho is one of the reasons why Geetanjali divorced Vinod Khanna.

‘Insaaf’, which released in 1987, is considered to be Vinod Khanna’s comeback film after his spiritual sojourn with Osho Rajneesh in the US.

In 1990, he divorced his first wife Geetanjali and married Kavita, who he reportedly met at a party hosted at his place. Interestingly, Kavita Khanna had landed at the party mistakenly as she was not invited. The duo ended up with two kids, son Sakshi and daughter Shraddha Khanna.

Vinod Khanna agreed to play Salman Khan’s father in ‘Wanted’ when the latter’s career was on a downfall. ‘Wanted’ released in 2009 and became a huge hit. Since then, Salman considered Vinod Khanna as his lucky mascot and insisted he be cast in future films like ‘Dabangg’ and ‘Dabangg 2’. Both went on to become super-hits.

Vinod Khanna had been suffering from cancer, which he had known since six years but kept it a secret as his daughter Shraddha was due to appear for an important exam and needed parents’ support. Vinod Khanna was suffering from advanced bladder carcinoma and breathed his last at the age of 70 on April 27, 2017.

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