Vinod Khanna

Vinod Khanna (born 6 October 1946) is an Indian actor, film producer and politician.

Vinod Khanna was born in Peshawar, North West Frontier Province, British India (now in Pakistan). After Partition, his family migrated to Punjab, India. His family first settled in Amritsar, then moved to Ludhiana. He married in the Geetanjali late 1960s and his first son Rahul Khanna was born in 1972. His second son Akshaye Khanna was born in 1975. Unfortunately, his marriage ended in a divorce.In 1990, he again tied the knot with Kavita Daftry and was blessed with two children – son Sakshi and daughter Shraddha.

As a child Vinod Khanna had the opportunity to study in some of the best schools of his times.He schooled at Barnes School, Deolali and graduated from Mumbai's Sydenham college. Later, while he was pursuing his commerce studies at a college in Mumbai, the legendary Sunil Dutt offered him a role in his forthcoming "Man Ka Meet". His decision to do a film invited the wrath of his father, who threatened to throw him out of the house, if he dared to enter the tinsel town. But destiny willed otherwise and he went to act in the film. The film was a success and his family too reconciled with the choice of his profession.

Vinod Khanna debuted in Sunil Dutt's 1968 film "Man Ka Meet" as a villain. The rave reviews of his first film fetched him fifteen different roles with in a week’s time. He acted in multi-starrer films often playing supporting and negative roles notably playing a dacoit in the 1971 hit "Mera Gaon Mera Desh" and "Reshma Aur Shera".

His big break was in the 1971 film "Mere Apne" directed by Gulzar.In Mere Apne he had the opportunity of working with the debutant director Gulzar—an experience, he remembers to this day. Negative roles could not contain satisfy his talent for long. Vinod Khanna’s skills and charismatic personality soon fetched him the roles of a hero.

His sensitive performance as an army officer facing death row in another Gulzar scripted and directed 1973 film "Achanak" was critically acclaimed. The songless film echoed the true life story of K. M. Nanavati vs. State of Maharashtra and Khanna portrayed Kawas Nanavati, the real life Navy officer.

He went on to star in many hits throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. His performance in films like "Parvarish" (1977), "Amar Akbar Anthony"(1977), "Muqaddar Ka Sikander" (1978), "The Burning Train"(1980) and "Qurbani" (1980) brought him in league of the likes of Amitabh, Shashi Kapoor and Rajesh Khanna.

The rise of Vinod Khanna in the filmdom went on steadily through the seventies. But when he was soaring high in his profession, Vinod Khanna developed spiritual inclinations.During his spiritual quest, his coming into contact with Osho the divine master abruptly interrupted his celluloid romance. He renounced the world and went to stay in the Osho’s ashram and left the film industry in 1979 for eight years. At this time, he was the most successful actor in the Bollywood, competing with Amitabh Bachchan.
There he did all kinds of jobs from fitter, electrician, and gardener to manual labourer to eke out a living. He stayed in the Oregon headquarters of the Osho’s commune for a couple of years. After a few years, he came back from Rajneeshpuram (US)—disillusioned and distressed, to pick up the lost threads of his profession.

He rejoined the industry, eight years later in mid 1980s.His come back film "Insaaf" was a runaway success and he was flooded with offers from people like JP Dutta, Yash Chopra and Mukul Anand. Soon he churned out a large number of films like "Batwara", "Kshatriya", "Suryaa", "C.I.D.","Rihaee","Pathar Ke Insaan","Parampara","Mahasangram", "Khoon Ka Karz","Dayavan", and "Police Aur Mujrim" and many others. But the film critics were unanimous on the fact that the best part of Vinod Khanna was far over.

Vinod Khanna had the good fortune of acting with female stars of three generations like Saira Bano, Mumtaz, Yogita Bali, Rekha, Hema Malini, Shabana Azmi, Neetu Singh, Meenakhsi Sheshadri, Poonam Dhillon, Karishma Kapoor and Amisha Patel and host of others in a career spanning over thirty years. He has a penchant for owning best cars in the world and has driven around in BMW, Mercedes, Porsche and Cadillac—to name a few.

In 1999, Vinod Khanna, a veteran of over hundred films was given the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award for his outstanding contribution to the Indian cinema.

In 1997 he introduced his son Akshaye in the film "Himalay Putra" which he produced and also starred in. In 1999 he received a Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award. He has since acted in fewer films playing character roles. His most recent films were "Deewaanapan" (2002) and "Risk" (2007).

In 1997, he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and was nominated from Gurdaspur, East Punjab in the next year's Lok Sabha poll.

The star-factor helped him oust five time Lok Sabha member Sukhbans Kaur Bhinder. Bhinder's perceived inability to develop the area outweighed the "outsider" tag applied to Khanna. The latter became union minister for culture and tourism in July 2002. Six months later he was moved to the more important ministry of external affairs (MEA) as minister of state. In 2004 he won re-election from Gurdaspur.

He was the highest taxpayer in Mumbai in 1990-91. Presently, he continues to participate in the film business based out of Dubai.

HIS MOVIES WITH THE SUPER STAR RAJESH KHANNA :

1) Sacha Jhutha - 1970
2) Aan Milo Sajana - 1971
3) Guddi - 1971
4) Prem Kahani - 1975
5) Kudrat - 1981
6) Rajput - 1982