Vinod Khanna

Man Ka Meet and the Villain Years

His first credit was Man Ka Meet in 1968, playing the antagonist. IANS dates his first minor roles to 1969, so the start of the career is a year apart depending on the source, but every account agrees on what came next: a run of villain parts, and then a switch to leads. Mera Gaon Mera Desh, in which he played the bandit opposite Dharmendra, was the breakthrough. Mere Apne, Imtihaan, Inkaar, Gaddaar and Parvarish followed, and the Filmfare Awards gave him Best Supporting Actor for Haath Ki Safaai.

The films that fixed him in the public memory came late in the decade. A DESIblitz tribute dates Amar Akbar Anthony to 1977, Muqaddar Ka Sikander to 1978 and Qurbani to 1980. Over a career that ran to more than 100 films, he was rarely out of work.

Lao Tzu Garden in Pune and Rajneeshpuram, Oregon

The break with the film industry had been building for years. Osho News, a publication of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh's followers, records that Khanna took sannyas on 31 December 1975 in Pune and was given the name Vinod Bharti, while he was still making films. In 1982, by the account of the Associated Press and The Daily Star obituaries, he stopped. The Quint puts the departure in 1980. Either way, a leading man with a full slate of releases walked away to follow Rajneesh, first to the Pune ashram and then to Rajneeshpuram, the commune in Oregon.

He did not go as a celebrity. Both The Quint and Osho News describe him working as a gardener, tending the Lao Tzu Garden at the Pune ashram and then the grounds in Oregon. "My mind was very hyper...I felt that if I really had to go deeper into meditation, I need to give full time to it," he said, in a remark quoted by DESIblitz after his death.

The cost fell on his family. He had married Geetanjali in 1971, and the couple had two sons, Rahul and Akshaye. The marriage did not survive the commune years; The Quint dates the divorce to 1985.

Insaaf, 1987

Five years after leaving, Khanna came back with Insaaf in 1987, and Satyamev Jayate the same year. The Quint places the return a little earlier, in 1985 or 1986, but the Associated Press, The Daily Star and Osho News all give 1987. Dayavan followed, and the second career settled into the pattern of the first, a steady run of releases.

In 1990 he married Kavita, and they had two more children, a son and a daughter. In 1997 he turned producer with Himalay Putra, released on 4 April 1997, which gave his son Akshaye Khanna his debut. Rahul Khanna also became an actor. The Filmfare Awards gave Khanna their Lifetime Achievement award in 1999, and the Zee Cine Awards did the same in 2007. His last screen appearance was in Dilwale in 2015.

Gurdaspur, 1998

Khanna joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 1997 and stood for the Lok Sabha from Gurdaspur, a border constituency in Punjab, in 1998. The Tribune later recalled that he beat a Congress minister by about 70,000 votes. He held the seat in 1999 and 2004.

Under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee he was made Minister of State for Culture and Tourism in July 2002 and then moved to Minister of State for External Affairs, a post he held in 2003 and 2004. The IANS obituary, Osho News and The Tribune give the month and the years of the appointments, not the exact dates.

He lost Gurdaspur in 2009, as IANS noted, and won it back in 2014. The PRS Legislative Research record of the 16th Lok Sabha shows the term running from 18 May 2014 to 27 April 2017, the day he died, and counts it as his fourth.

The 2014 Gurdaspur Affidavit

Khanna never disclosed what the films had earned him, and no estimate of his wealth from a financial publication was found for this article. The one public record found is the affidavit he filed as a candidate in 2014, which MyNeta transcribes from the Election Commission filing. It gives his age as 68 and his occupation as film artist. The declared totals are Rs 31,21,93,375 in movable assets and Rs 35,71,50,000 in immovable assets, Rs 66,93,43,376 in all, against liabilities of Rs 1,26,95,306. Subtracting the liabilities from the assets leaves about Rs 65.66 crore.

This article carries no net worth figure. The affidavit is a self-declaration from 2014, opened here in a single transcription, and he died three years later with no public valuation of his estate. The declared figures are the only sourced numbers, so they are given as declared and not turned into an estimate.

Sir H N Reliance Foundation Hospital, April 2017

Khanna died at 11:20 am on 27 April 2017, aged 70, at Sir H N Reliance Foundation Hospital. The hospital's statement, carried by The Daily Star and by IANS, gave the cause as advanced bladder carcinoma and placed the hospital in Mumbai; the Associated Press dispatch of the same day placed it in New Delhi. He was a sitting member of parliament at the time, and he was survived by his wife Kavita and his four children.

Sources

• Veteran Bollywood actor Vinod Khanna dies
• Bollywood Actor Vinod Khanna Dies at 70
• Obituary: Vinod Khanna, the perpetual charmer
• Vinod Khanna (Bharatiya Janata Party) - Gurdaspur, Punjab - Affidavit Information of Candidate
• This is how Vinod Khanna jumped into politics!
• Vinod Khanna: The Actor Who Became a Monk and Sold His Mercedes
• Vinod Bharti (aka Vinod Khanna) | Osho News
• Vinod Khanna | PRSIndia
• A Tribute to Vinod Khanna ~ Bollywood's 70s Legend
• Himalay Putra Movie Cast & Crew