Rajesh Khanna

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Rajesh Khanna
Born
Jatin Khanna
Years active1966 - present
SpouseDimple Kapadia (1973-1984)

Rajesh Khanna (Hindi: राजेश खन्ना; Punjabi: ਰਾਜੇਸ਼ ਖੰਨਾ) (born Jatin Khanna on December 29, 1942 in Amritsar) is an Indian Bollywood thespian and laureate of the Dada Saheb Phalke Legend Golden Actor Award, bestowed on him in 2008. He has also served a five year tenure as MP in the Indian parliament (1991-1996).Also known as Kaka , he is the first SUPERSTAR of INDIAN film industry.


Early life

Rajesh Khanna was born in Amritsar. He was born to his parents after their eighteen years of marriage. After three daughters, they were very keen on a son and so he was adopted by them. He was brought up in a very protective environment.


Khanna's parents had misgivings about Rajesh's serious ambitions regarding a professional career in the dramatic arts. His initial foray into cinema with renowned film maker Chetan Anand was not a resounding success. Nonetheless, Rajesh persisted and did very well. 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 proclaimed and acknowledged Superstar, as the term Superstar first time came into existence only for him in Indian movies.He debuted in Aakhri khat in 1966 which was a dud. The films where he was noticed by people were Aurat (1967) and Baharoan ke sapne in 1967. He was christened with Superstar status after his Aradhana. He went on to give in all 86 classics i.e. good quality films and only 31 bad films in his career of 25 years as the main lead hero of the movie till 1991.

Later life

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 going to perform in a T.V. Serial Bhabhima with Leena Ganguly as Lead Pair of the serial.


Career

Early success(1966-1974)- STAR TO SUPERSTAR TO LEGEND

Rajesh Khanna joined the film industry after winning an All India Talent Contest through a nation wide selection procedure by panel of judges like Bimal Roy, Chetan Anand, G.P. Sippy, Shakti Samanta and B. R. Chopra. He made his film debut in the 1966 film Aakhri Khat ,a dud followed by Raaz opposite heroine Babita, which had noted Tamil actress Pandari Bai too,which was also unsuccessful. He was noticed in the next film "Baharaon ke sapne " followed by "Aurat" where he played as brother of Padmini in 1967 and then in Khamoshi where he played as a mad man. His meteoric rise to fame came with the 1969 film Aradhana which was his first major hit. From then on he was established as an exceptionally popular protagonist in the early 1970s, appearing in innumerable romantic and melodramatic films which were hugely successful at the box office. He was often paired with actresses like Mumtaz or Sharmila Tagore in this period.


The Golden and Silver Jubilee hits Hits during this period after Aradhana were the 33 Blockbusters Do Raaste , Ittefaq , Doli , Bandhan (1969 ) , Khamoshi , The Train , Safar, Saccha Jhutha ,Kati Patang , Mehboob ki Mehendi, Aan Milo Sajna (1970) , Anand , Maryada , Andaz , Haathi Mere Saathi , Choti Bahu '1971 , Dushman, Amar Prem , Apna Desh ,Mere Jeevan Saathi , Dil Daulat Duniya, Joru Ka Ghulam, Shehzada (1972),Daag , Bawarchi , Anuraag ,Namak Haraam , Avishkaar (1973), Aap Ki Kasam, Ajnabee ,Prem Nagar and Roti (1974) and then Prem Kahani in 1975[1].Infact Humshakal alone is regarded as a bad film of Kaka from this part of his career . Raja Rani alongwith Aakri Khat ,Raaz , Maalik, Badnam Farishte are the only unfortunate films of his from this era to have flopped at the boxoffice inspite of being fantastic flicks.


The tag of Superstar was given to him because Aradhana( 1969 ) onwards he gave 20 consecutive superhit movies upto 1972 end when his movie Maalik , a good movie mysteriously became flop.No other Indian actor has been able to emulate this feat of Kaka of giving so many superhits successively that too when the gap between 2 films releasing being less than 2 months and also of performing so many varied roles in his lifetime. . In a span of 6 years, no actor in the world has given these many number of superhits. He as such throughout his career did films where there was a good storyline backed by powerful and melodious music except a few . He alone held the numero uno position of being Indian cinema's superstar till Amitabh had hits like Sholay and Deewaar in 1975.


Another notable feat of Legendry Superstar Rajesh is that he has given just 33 flops in his career spanning 25 years as the main lead actor of the films.Totally in his career in Hindi Film Industry ,he has given more than eighty classics till year 1996 out of which 71 have him as solo hero .He to his credit has 61 movies as big boxoffice grossers which excludes those movies which inspite of being great films did not work wonders at the boxoffice and those which did average business .Also he unlike his contemprories, did only 15 multi starrers in his career with him having a pivotal role.He never minded sharing screen space with other legends even during the height of his career.


The Actresses with whom he has had the most number of superhits are Sharmila Tagore , Asha Parekh , Mumtaz ,Hema Malini and Tina Munim of which Rajesh Mumtaz was the most popular one. The directors who showcased his talent perfectly are Shakthi Samant and Hrishikesh Mukherjee during this period. Aradhana made him a Superstar and Anand made him a legend at the young age of 29 whereas Amardeep resurrected his sagging career in late seventies.


During the peak of his career 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 [2]


Several of the popular songs sung by Kishore Kumar in the 1970s were picturized on Khanna and were mostly composed by R.D.Burman and after Khanna's emergence as a Superstar, Kishore Kumar went onto have a more successful career in playback singing than what he had in the fifties and sixties .

Later career: (1976-present)- VERSATILE PERFORMER

Post 1976 Superstar Rajesh Khanna surprisingly made a few wrong choices, and gave 10 boxoffice flops including Naukri and Aaina , till 1979, which were all solo hero projects that were panned by critics and audience which was actually because of either bad editing or bad storyline of the film. Also during period between 1976-79 highly acclaimed movies like Karm , Mehbooba ,Tyaag ,Anurodh , Aaina and Naukri which were all well directed as well as were the films where full starcast had performed very well, were released but unforunately these films could not run for as many weeks as his earlier films did and this can be attributed to the fact that the definition of a boxoffice flop in seventies was completely different - i.e. if a movie ran for less than fifteen weeks it was a dud as per boxoffice even if the film was wonderful. This was the time ie.1976-79 when Amitabh got Superstar status not only due to his continuous good performances but due to bad choices made by Kaka. It can be said the form which Rajesh showed earlier made people, especially the media to keep high expectations from his films and these high standards set by himself , only went against him, due to which people ,even though Rajesh kept giving mindblowing performances started to conclude that his era had ended .There are media reports in late seventies which suggested that success perhaps had caused Kaka 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.[3] .This behaviour coupled with the changing trend from romantic and social movies to action oriented multi-star films in the late 1970s and 1980s caused the decline of Khanna's career in terms of box office rating. It can also be said ill luck had befallen on him completely because a Hrishikesh Mukherjee movie like Naukri(1978) which starrerd him and Raj Kapoor which should have been a visual treat for the audience and which had a touching tale went without much of a trace mainly because of Amitabh Bachchan's growing popularity as the authority bashing oppressed common man .


But Rajesh Khanna bounced back with critically acclaimed box office hits like Amardeep , Prem Bandhan (both 1979) and then "Til Til Dalekha" a Punjabi movie ,won Punjab State Govt. award for best story writer and second best feature film in 1979 which was followed by blockbusters again in Hindi like Thodisi Bewafaii and Aanchal in 1980 and Kudrat and Dhanwaan in 1981. He was also praised by critics for potraying his roles in the dud Redrose(1980) and superhit Dard(1981)which all together brought his career back in track. Eighties saw him dabble with roles in such a manner that in one film he would romance as a college student then in another play as villain or as an old man or as a middle aged husband.


His most commercially successful films at boxoffice with critical acclaim in this period were Souten ,Rajput , Avtaar ,Asha Jyothi , Agar Tum Na Hote , Bandhish , Babu, Ashanti , Phir wohi raat,Maqsad,[4] Akhir kyun, Nishaan-1983 , Alag alag , Aawaaz , Hum dono , Shatru , Bewafaaii , Zamana ,Nazrana , Dharam Aur Kanoon , Angaarey ,Vijay, Amrit , Ghar ka chirag and Swarg. He starred in 45 classics after 1975 till Khudai and Aa Ab Laut Chalen and before that in 41 which includes good films that were either released late or little publicity was given before their release so [5] did not succeed much during their release like the unconventional role in Aakri Khat ,Raaz, Maalik, Badnam Farishte , Aaina (1977), Mehbooba , Karm , Tyaag,Naukri[6] and Redrose and in addition the classics also include those flicks which did average businness at boxoffice like Chaila Babu ,Aaj Ka Ram Avtaar -MLA , Anokha rishta , Naya Kadam , Fifty fifty and Adhikar .


The eighties saw him successfully pair up with Tina Munim,Jaya Prada, Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil, Poonam Dhillon and again with Hema Malini.


He shared a very close relationship with R.D.Burman and Kishore Kumar. The trio who had a great working relationship were infact best friends too and have together worked in more than thirty films. Whenever the three joined they have given mostly hit films. Inspite of Panchamda's good music and Kishoreda singing for Rajesh, a few movies like Raja Rani, Humshakal ,Mehbooba , Karm, Chaltapurza ,Naukri,Redrose , Awara baap ,Oonche log , Bundalbaaz, Mahachor and Bhola bhala were not Boxoffice successes. His films always had the presence of his preferred set of actors like Sujith Kumar ,Prem Chopra ,Madan Puri ,Asrani ,Bindu and A K Hangal.He easily used to put both simplicity and glamour in the each character played by him.

By the early 1990s he quit acting for many years and served as M.P. of New Delhi Constituency during 1991-1996. During that period, he appeared in the classic Khudai (1994). He made a come back as a NRI in Aa ab laut chalen produced by the RK banner in 1999 and Kyaa Dil Ne Kahaa (2002) where he played elderly father roles. In 2006 he appeared in Jaana - Let's Fall in Love which was a direct to video release. In September, 2007 he has officially announced about his second innings on big screen and has signed about eight new forthcoming films.


Personal life

Khanna in sixties dated Anju Mahendroo. She later drifted away from him after his Superstardom. Too proud to be a part of his coterie, she went inward and turned distant from him both socially and emotionally. Later they broke off in early seventies .


He married Dimple Kapadia in 1973 and has two daughters from the mairrage. [7] Khanna and Dimple Kapadia separated in 1984 as she was interested in pursuing an acting career and moreover she couldn't spend much tme with her husband either because of his busy schedule.In the mid eighties after Dimple and Khanna seperated, Tina Munim was romantically linked with Rajesh but then the relationship was shortlived . Even though Dimple and Khanna lived seperately thereafter their relation, after a few years of seperation once again blossomed and remained that of close friends.Their elder daughter Twinkle , an interior decorator is married to superstar Akshay Kumar and younger daughter Rinkie is married to an entrepreneur, after attending an American University.

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.


Television career

In 2001-2002, Rajesh 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 perform in a T.V. Serial Bhabhima with Leena Ganguly as Lead Pair of the serial.

In its Silver Jubilee Episode, K for Kishore has celebrated SUPER STAR RAJESH KHANNA SPECIAL, on 14th and 15th of March, 2008.


Awards

Filmfare Awards

Won
Nominated

Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards


Filmography

References

  1. ^ http://www.jaman.com/forum/Bollywood/discussion/0XRwyVMV5Sc0/
  2. ^ rediff.com, Movies: The different avatars of Rajesh Khanna
  3. ^ An article from screenindia.com dated 08-17-2008
  4. ^ http://boxofficeindia.com/showProd.php?itemCat=190&catName=MTk4NA==
  5. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0275748/#comment
  6. ^ http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/movies/review/13081/index.html
  7. ^ An article from rediff.com dated 13-09-2002
  8. ^ BFJA Awards 1972
  9. ^ BFJA Awards 1973
  10. ^ BFJA Awards 1975
  11. ^ BFJA Awards 1987

External links

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