84 Facts About Rajesh Khanna

Rajesh Khanna was an Indian actor, film producer and politician who worked in Hindi films.

Rajesh Khanna is known as the "First Superstar of Bollywood", he consecutively starred in a record 15 solo hero successful films between 1969 and 1971.

Rajesh Khanna was the highest-paid actor in Hindi cinema throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

Rajesh Khanna's accolades include four BFJA Awards and five Filmfare Awards, and in 2013, he was posthumously awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honour.

Rajesh Khanna 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.

Rajesh Khanna was married to Dimple Kapadia in March 1973, eight months before her debut film Bobby was released and had two daughters from the marriage.

Rajesh Khanna died on 18 July 2012, after a period of illness.

Rajesh Khanna has been honoured with a stamp and statue in his likeness, and a road renamed after him by the Prime Minister of India.

In 2018, a one kilometre fitness trail in Lajpat Nagar National Park was named after Rajesh Khanna, which was inaugurated by his wife Dimple Kapadia.

Rajesh Khanna was born on 29 December 1942, in Amritsar in the Punjab Province of British India, as 'Jatin Khanna' into a Punjabi Hindu Khatri family.

Rajesh Khanna was adopted and raised by Chunnilal Khanna and Leelawati Khanna, who were relatives of his biological parents.

Rajesh Khanna's father had migrated from West Punjab to Gali Tiwarian in Amritsar.

Rajesh Khanna lived in Saraswati Niwas, in Thakur-dwar near Girgaon, Mumbai.

Rajesh Khanna attended St Sebastian's Goan High School with his friend Ravi Kapoor, who later took the stage name Jeetendra.

Rajesh Khanna gradually started taking interest in theatre, did many of stage and theatre plays in his school and college days, and won many prizes in inter-college drama competitions.

In 1962 Rajesh 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.

Rajesh 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.

Rajesh Khanna did his first two years of Bachelor of Arts in Nowrosjee Wadia College in Pune from 1959 to 1961.

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.

Rajesh Khanna made his film debut in the 1966 film Aakhri Khat, directed by Chetan Anand, followed by Raaz, directed by Ravindra Dave, both of which were a part of his predetermined prize for winning the All-India United Producers' Talent Competition.

Rajesh Khanna was then noticed for his performances in films such as Baharon Ke Sapne, Aurat, Doli, Aradhana and Ittefaq.

Rajesh Khanna is credited with giving Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar their first chance to become screenplay writers by offering them work in Haathi Mere Saathi.

Rajesh Khanna told us that if we could set right the script, he would make sure we got both money and credit.

Rajesh Khanna had 15 consecutive solo hit films between 1969 and 1971.

Rajesh Khanna had 17 consecutive hit films as the lead hero from 1969 to 1971 which included 15 solo hero films and 2 non-solo hero films; Andaz and Maryada.

In 1972, Rajesh Khanna acted in 11 releases including the Telugu film Bangaru Babu.

The attire worn by Rajesh Khanna was a sleeveless shirt and trousers, thick leather belt, shoes without socks and a black cap.

Whenever Rajesh Khanna entered a hotel in Madras, there was a queue of 600 girls waiting to see him at midnight.

Rajesh Khanna was very generous with his associates, and would party a lot.

Rajesh Khanna was nominated for his performance in a complicated role in Daag.

However, Rishi Kapoor received the Best Actor award for his jolly, schoolboyish debut role in Bobby, Rajesh Khanna did not win the award for his performance in Daag.

Rajesh Khanna needed police protection when he was in public.

Rajesh Khanna's films were always known for the music with chartbuster soundtracks.

Rajesh Khanna used to be personally present for recording of the solo songs to be picturised on him.

Rajesh Khanna considered Guru Dutt, Meena Kumari and Geeta Bali to be his idols.

Between 1976 and 1978, Rajesh Khanna acted in seven films that were not commercially successful.

Rajesh Khanna persuaded Samanta to cast his sister-in-law Simple Kapadia opposite him in Anurodh.

Films starring Rajesh Khanna and directed by Shakti Samanta tended to be commercially successful, but Mehbooba was an exception.

However, Rajesh Khanna continued basically in solo-hero socially sober household meaningful films during this era and played a variety of characters in films of various genres.

Rajesh Khanna was the first choice of director Raj Kapoor for the lead role in Satyam Shivam Sundaram, but some members from the Raj Kapoor camp opposed his presence.

Director Bharathiraja decided to remake his 1978 Tamil box office hit film Sigappu Rojakkal in Hindi with Rajesh Khanna playing a psychopath.

Rajesh Khanna acted in the Marathi hit film Sundara Satarkar in 1981.

Rajesh Khanna starred in Hindi remakes of 3 Tamil films originally starring Kamal, and Kamal acted in 2 remakes of Rajesh Khanna's films.

Rajesh Khanna enjoyed the mediocre film thoroughly and refused to leave until the end titles.

Rajesh Khanna's shirt was torn, but he was enjoying himself thoroughly.

Rajesh Khanna performed in successful multi-star films including Rajput, Dharm Aur Qanoon, Paapi Pet Ka Sawaal Hai, Zamana, Dil-E-Nadaan and Ghar Ka Chiraag.

Rajesh Khanna did three movies with Jeetendra: Dharam Kanta, Nishaan and Maqsad.

Ram Avtar, Rajesh Khanna played the character of a corrupt politician.

Rajesh Khanna did films of different themes such as reincarnation in Kudrat, spiritualism in Maalik and immaturity while falling in love in Anokha Rishta, Nazrana and Dil E Nadan.

The main difference between him and his predecessors, successors, contemporaries was that Rajesh Khanna's films ran successfully in whole of India and not just Hindi speaking areas and he did films of every genre simultaneously and has more critically acclaimed films to his credit than all other Hindi Actors of every generation.

Rajesh Khanna shared close relationships with R D Burman and Kishore Kumar.

In 1985 Pancham found himself being sidelined after failures of a few films, but Rajesh Khanna was among the few who continued to stand by him.

Rajesh Khanna was very particular about his music and would take a tape home if he could not assess a song.

Rajesh Khanna had great interest in music and a terrific sense of melody too.

Shah Rukh Khan idolises Rajesh Khanna and has opined; "Rajesh Khanna, you can't touch".

Rajesh Khanna was the biggest and the most real star Bollywood has produced.

Actor Salman Khan has told in many interviews that he or Aamir or Shahrukh have not even achieved 10 percent of kind of achievements Rajesh Khanna had in field of acting or his stardom.

Rajesh Khanna made a comeback as an NRI in Aa Ab Laut Chalen, and Kyaa Dil Ne Kahaa and played the solo lead in the films Sautela Bhai in 1996, Pyar Zindagi Hai in 2001, Kaash Mere Hote in 2009, Wafaa in 2008 and Riyasaat in 2010.

Rajesh Khanna was Faculty Guest of "Specialised Cinema Courses At Asian School Of Media Studies".

On 10 April 1999 Khanna inaugurated the live concert of S P Balasubrahmanyam, held at Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium, Hyderabad as a tribute to R D Burman.

In 2001 and 2002, Rajesh Khanna played the lead in two television serials: Aapne Parai and Ittefaq.

Rajesh Khanna performed in a video album based on Tagore's songs without payment.

Rajesh Khanna signed on to star in a TV serial with Creative Eye Banner, in 2007, and in 2008 performed in a TV serial, Bhabhima, with Leena Ganguly as his co-star.

Rajesh Khanna cited the lack of good roles for actors like him in films as the reason for him not appearing much in films after 2001.

Rajesh Khanna said in an interview on being queried about his decision to do TV serials: "The reach of TV is much more than cinema today and one episode of my serial is likely to be watched by more people than a super-hit film".

Advani by a narrow margin of 1589 votes, after which Rajesh Khanna stood on the grounds at the counting station insisting that he had been cheated of a win.

Rajesh Khanna contested the seat again, won the by-election by defeating Shatrughan Sinha by 25,000 votes.

Rajesh Khanna was a member of Parliament for the Indian National Congress, from the New Delhi constituency, where he won the 1992 by-election, retaining his seat until 1996 after which he was not interested in active politics.

When Rajesh Khanna was MP, he did not accept new acting assignments, but only acted in the film Khudai.

Rajesh Khanna had quit acting when she married Khanna since the latter wanted his partner to be a housewife.

However, Rajesh Khanna remained adamant that his wife will not work.

Kapadia eventually left Rajesh Khanna and started her career in films.

Rajesh Khanna maintained cordial relationships with Asha Parekh, Zeenat Aman, Dev Anand, Yash Chopra, Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Rishi Kapoor and Rakesh Roshan.

In June 2012, it was reported that Rajesh Khanna's health had been deteriorating for some time.

Rajesh Khanna died on 18 July 2012, at his bungalow, Aashirwad, in Mumbai.

Rajesh Khanna died in the presence of his wife Dimple Kapadia, daughters Rinke Khanna and Twinkle Khanna, son-in-law Akshay Kumar, Grandchildren, Anju Mahendru and other close relatives.

Rajesh Khanna's pyre was lit by his grandson, Aarav, with the assistance of Akshay Kumar.

Rajesh Khanna's prayer meeting, organised in a grand way at the Taj Land's End hotel in Bandra, Mumbai on 21 July 2012, was attended by many.

On his first death anniversary, a bronze statue of Rajesh Khanna was unveiled at Bandra Bandstand, Mumbai.

Rajesh Khanna won seven All-India Critics Association Best Actor Awards, and received 10 nominations.

Rajesh Khanna won four Best Actor Awards in the Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards, and received 25 nominations.

Rajesh Khanna won three Filmfare Best Actor Awards, one Filmfare Special Guest Actor Award in 1973, and received a Filmfare Special Award in 1991, after 25 years in the Hindi film industry.

Rajesh Khanna received the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award at the 50th anniversary Filmfare Awards ceremony in 2005.

Rajesh Khanna received the IIFA Lifetime Achievement award in 2009.