Rajesh khanna was a Bollywood actor as well as a film producer. He also served as a Lok Sabha member for four years, from 1992 to 1996. He was elected from the New Delhi constituency. He was known as the “original superstar” of Indian cinema. He was cast in 183 films. Among them, there were 163 feature films and 17 short films. He won the Film Fare award in the category of Best Actor thrice and was nominated fourteen times for the same. He won the BFJA award in the category of Best Actor four times. In the year 1991, he completed 25 successful years in the Bollywood industry and was thus awarded the Film Fare Special Award. In the year 2005, he was awarded the Film Fare Lifetime Achievement Award. His first film was Aakhri khat in the year 1966. He married Dimple Kapadia in the year 1973. He has two daughters, Twinkle Khanna and Rinke Khanna. He was the most successful as well as highest paid actor in that era with thirty five golden jubilee hits and twenty two silver jubilee hits. He was taken severely ill and breathed his last on 18th July, 2012. He had cancer. The Government of India is considering honoring him with the Padma Vibhushan Award in the arts category.

Personal Life

He was born on 29th December, 1942 in Amritsar, Punjab. The names of his biological parents were Lala Hiranand and Chandrani Khanna. His father migrated to India from Pakistan. He was a headmaster of a school in Pakistan. Rajesh Khanna was adopted by Chuni lal Khanna and Lila Vati Khanna. After his adoption, he was known as Jatin Khanna. He lived in Girgaon, Mumbai and went to St. Sebastian Goan high school. He completed his studies from Hill Grange High School in Mumbai in the year 1959. He had a keen interest in theatres from early childhood and used to attend theatres and plays in school and college days. He had also won many prizes while participating in interschool competitions. He completed the first two years of Bachelors of Arts from Wadia College and later completed his studies from K.C College in Mumbai. He struggled a lot in the early sixties to find work in the film industry. When he decided to join films, his uncle changed his name to Rajesh. From then on, he came to be known as Rajesh Khanna. He was called Kaka by his friends and wife. 

During his early career in the time span of 1960-1970, he was attracted towards Anju Mahendru. She was a very popular fashion designer and film actress at that time. Rajesh Khanna and Anju Mahendru had a seven year relationship. Later they broke up. Eventually, Rajesh Khanna married Dimple Kapadia in March 1973. They have two daughters, Twinkle Khanna and Rinke Khanna. Twinkle Khanna is married to actor Akshay Kumar and the other daughter Rinke Khanna is married to Samir Saran, an investment banker. Rajesh Khanna and Dimple Kapadia separated in the year 1984 but did not divorce. In the eighties, Rajesh Khanna was in a relationship with the then popular actress Tina Munim. But later they ended their relationship as Tina Munim chose to pursue higher studies and left the industry. In July 2011, Rajesh Khanna was diagnosed with cancer. His health started deteriorating. He was admitted to Lilavati Hospital on 23rd June and discharged on 8th July. On 14th July, he was again admitted to hospital and was discharged on 16th July. He died on 18th July. 

 Professional Life

In 1965, Rajesh Khanna won the All India Talent Contest organized by United Producers and Film Fare. As a reward, he was offered the film Aakhri Khat directed by Chetan Anand. His next film was Raaz, directed by Ravindra Dave. This film was also part of the winning prize. G.P Sippy and Nassir Hussein signed him for his early films. Some of his successful and popular films include Baharon ke Sapne, Aurat, Aaradhana, Doli and Ittefaaq. Kishore Kumar was the playback singer for most of the Rajesh Khanna starred film's songs till 1991. These songs are popular even today. The on screen chemistry of Rajesh Khanna with actress Mumtaz was hugely appreciated by the audience and they together gave eight successful hits. He acted in different kinds of films like action in Ashanti, negative role in Red rose, tragedy in Babu, adventure in Awam and many more. He had very close relationship with Kishore Kumar and R.D Burman. They worked together in creating many hot songs in films like Alag Alag and many more. In his later career in the nineties, he acted in a film named Khudai. Later, in 1999 and 2002, he acted in two more films. He had brief career acting in television from 2000 to 2009. He will always be remembered as India’s most successful superstar.