Meet actor who was once a bigger star than Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra but threw it all away to be a sanyasi.
While Rajesh Khanna and Dilip Kumar are often called the first superstars of Indian cinema, Amitabh Bachchan certainly surpassed them with his superstardom in the 70s and 80s. The Angry Young Man persona helped him scale unprecedented heights. So it is hard to fathom that once there was an actor who was an even bigger star than Amitabh and even Dharmendra. A contemporary of theirs who quit acting at his peak for spiritualism.
The actor who was once bigger than Amitabh, Dharmendra
Vinod Khanna was born in 1946 in undivided India before migrating to Bombay after the Partition. He began his film journey in 1968 with Sunil Dutt’s Man Ka Meet, but it was the 1971 dacoit western Mera Gaon Mera Desh that catapulted him to stardom. Even though he played a negative role in the film, many critics and viewers felt that he overshadowed the more established hero Dharmendra. This followed successful films as hero, such as Mere Apne, Achanak, and Imtihaan. Up till that point, he was considered a more bankable star than his contemporaries like Amitabh Bachchan and Jeetendra, before the former moved ahead with blockbusters like Sholay, Deewar, and Don.
When Vinod Khanna quit Bollywood to become a sanyasi
Vinod Khanna was known to be a spiritual person and he was a disciple of Osho. In 1982, when he was all of 36 and at the peak of his acting prowess and stardom, he shocked the cine world by announcing a sabbatical from acting. The actor moved to Oregon at Osho Rajneesh’s new aashram. For the next four years, he lived at the ashram as a hermit before the ashram developed friction with the US government. In 1986, Vinod Khanna returned to India and resumed his film career.
Vinod Khanna’s later film career and death
The actor, now a veteran, continued to act and deliver hits but could never quite recapture his stardo from the 70s. He gave hits like Qurbani, Dayavan, Chandni, and Jurm, but also saw a string of flops in the 90s. In 1999, he received a Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award, following which he moved to character roles in films like Deewanapan, Wanted, and the Dabangg series. His last film was the 2015 Shah Rukh Khan hit Dilwale.
In 2017, the veteran actor was diagnosed with bladder cancer. He was hospitalised after suffering from severe dehydration and passed away on April 27. He received the Dadasaheb Phalke Award posthmously.
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 "Vinod Khanna in the 70s")
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