Rajesh Khanna

Rajesh Khanna (born Jatin Khanna on December 29, 1942 in Amritsar) is a legendary Indian Bollywood thespian. He has also served a five year tenure as MP in the Indian parliament (1991-1996).

Early life

Rajesh Khanna came from an affluent family. Khanna's father had misgivings about Rajesh's taking on a professional acting career. His initial foray into cinema with renowned film maker Chetan Anand was not a resounding success. Nonetheless, Rajesh persisted and exceeded all expectations. His previous theatrical background assisted him with the characterization of the personas of the cinema which he portrayed effortlessly and naturally. He is Hindi cinema's first officially acknowledged Superstar.In March of 1973 Rajesh Khanna married Dimple Kapadia, a Bollywood actress who had just made her film debut in Raj Kapoor's coveted blockbuster Bobby. At the time of Kapadia's film debut, she was sixteen years old; Khanna was thirty-one. They became the parents of Twinkle Khanna and Rinke Khanna, who would also become Bollywood actresses.

Later life

Khanna and Dimple Kapadia separated in the early 1980s, but still they are fulfilling all the responsibilities of their social life especially in establishing the life of their daughters. Their elder daughter Twinkle who is an interior decorator is married to current star Akshay Kumar and younger daughter Rinkee is married to a businessman, after getting higher study from USA.
Khanna was a Member of Parliament for the New Delhi constituency (1991-96).He is the life member of International Film And Television Research Centre and International Film And Television Club Of Asian Academy Of Film & Television. Recently he announced his appearance in a spate of forthcoming films for which he is hopeful of renewing previous success. He is also going to participate as Celebrity Judge in a reality show at Sony Channel called K for Kishore, based on the legendary singer late Kishore Kumar . He is also going to perform in a T.V. Serial Bhabhima with Leena Ganguly as Lead Pair of the serial.

Bollywood career

Early Success

Rajesh Khanna joined the film industry in 1966 after winning an All India Talent Contest through a nation wide selection procedure by panel of judges like Late Bimal Roy, Guru Dutt, Chetan Anand, G.P. Sippy, Sri Sakti Samanta, Sri B. R. Chopra, etc., making his film debut was in Aakhri Khat which went unnoticed. He appeared in a few more films over the next two years which did not gain him any recognition. He shot to fame with the 1969 film Aradhana which was hugely successful at the box office. From then on he was an extremely popular actor in the early 1970s, appearing in many high impact romantic films and melodramas which were hugely successful at the box office. He was often paired with actresses Mumtaz or Sharmila Tagore. Some of his most successful films in this period included Anand (1970), Amar Prem (1971), Andaaz (1971), Daag (1973) and Namak Haraam (1973). During his heyday he would be mobbed during public appearances. Fans kissed his car, which would be covered with lipstick marks, and lined the road, cheering and chanting his name. Female fans sent him letters written in their own blood From 1969 to 1973 he had 15 consecutive hit films, a journalist Devyani Chaubal dubbed him "phenomenon" when he was at his peak. Several of the popular songs sung by Kishore Kumar in the 1970s were picturized on Khanna and helped his films become historically successful.

Later career

However the success perhaps caused him to be complacent, often turning up very late for shoots and throwing tantrums as well as having a whole entourage of sycophants accompany him for his shoots . This behaviour coupled with the changing trend from romantic movies to action oriented films in the late 1970s and 1980s caused the decline of Khanna's career in term of box office rating, but he continued to play lead roles in sober social household meaningful movies during the downtrodden trend of Hindi Cinema without any compromisation and gave the high profile films like Mehabooba, Anurodh, Karm, Palko ki Chaon Mein, Amar Deep, Thodi si Bewafai, Avataar, Souten, Amrit, Agar Tum Na Hote, Ghar Ka Chirag and many more during 1976 to 1991. He also performed central characters or guest roles in multi-starrer films as well such as Disco Dancer,Kudrat, Rajput, Dharam Aur Kanoon and Dharam Kanta, Ashanti etc.. He also took great risk and experimented with negative roles in Red Rose where he played a psycopath and in Dhanwaan, where he played an arrogant businessman . By the early 1990s he quit acting for many years and served as Hon'ble M.P. from prestigious seat of New Delhi Constituency from (1991-1996). During that period he appeared in Khudai (1994) and won Best Actor Award at Ujvegistan at Russian Film Festival. He made his acting comeback with three to four years gaps in Aa Ab Laut Chalen (1999) and Kyaa Dil Ne Kahaa (2002) where he played elderly father roles. In 2006 he appeared in Jaana - Let's Fall in Love But in 2007 he has officially announced his second innings and has signed about ten new films simultaneously and some new TV serials. He is also going to participate as Celebrity Judge in a reality show at Sony Channel called K for Kishore, based on the legendary singer late Kishore Kumar Ganguly.

Political career

During 1991-1996, Rajesh Khanna was a Member of Parliament for the Congress Party, from the New Delhi constituency. He has since been a political activist for the Congress Party expressing noteworthy, objective and constructive patriotism for India.

Television career

In 2001-2002, Rajesh Khanna played major roles in two television serials: Aapne Parai (B4U & DD Metro) and Ittefaqu (Zee TV).
He performed in a video album based on Tagore's immortal songs (Rabindra Sangeet) free of cost. Currently he is busy in processing his own music channel viz. R.K. Music Channel.
He has endorsed a talent hunt programme in 2007 namely "Star se Superstar tak" as the First Superstar of Indian Cinema, under the banner of Red Carpet Entertainment and donated a Gold Trophy of Rs.1 Crore with Ms. Priyanka Chopra.
He has signed a TV serial with Creative Eye Banner (Dhiraj Kumar)in 2007. He is also going to participate as Celebrity Judge in a reality show at Sony Channel called K for Kishore, based on the legendary singer late Kishore Kumar Ganguly.
He is also going to perform in a T.V. Serial Bhabhima with Leena Ganguly as Lead Pair of the serial.