When the phenomenon called Rajesh Khanna happened in the late 1960s and early 1970s, I had just stepped out of primary school. Movies were not part of my co-curricular activities, and when the newspaper was slid under the door, I was apt to read the comic-strip than turn to the films page which I doubt many newspapers those days had more than one.

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But I remember hearing about the super-hit Bobby, its super success and the boyish Rishi Kapoor and the lovely Dimple, the Bobby character in the film. So, when the then reigning superstar — the one and only India has ever had or will ever have, as I’ve been reminded again and again, throughout the day by Arnab Goswami and his ilk — Rajesh Khanna wooed her to agree to tie the knot with him, I had this vague feeling that the guy was breaking up a great jodi. To me, Rishi Kapoor and Dimple Kapadia were made for each other and not Rajesh Khanna and Dimple.

Notwithstanding that, I was also aware of the talk around me of the kind of following Rajesh Khanna had, the hysterical response of his female fans, and when in time as I grew up, I saw Aradhana on the big screen several years after its release, I found he had every right to be the superstar he was. Films like Amar Prem and Anand stayed with me, the dialogues, the way he spoke them and his mannerisms.

Then in high school, I was promoted to a highest class in which was a failed student — taller, older and surely not the brightest student in the entire school, for this was the second year he had been detained in the same class — and what struck me about him was his perfect Rajesh Khanna hairstyle, the head of hair that Kaka carried in Aradhana and several of his early films, and the same chiselled features. I envied the ‘failed boy’ looks. It was then that I realised, that I too was a fan of Kaka aka Rajesh Khanna – Superstar.