VINOD KHANNA may have seen the agony and anguish of the Partition and felt the pain through his parents miseries when they were uprooted and shifted to Gurdaspur yet all that is now but a fleeting memory of the past because all said and done VINOD KHANNA has as far back as he can remember been a part and parcel of Bombay long before it became Amchi Mumbai. In more ways than one he had the cosmopolitan upbringing that brought grace and polish in his character.

Right from his college days VINOD KHANNA was quite clear what he wanted to do with his life and how he would achieve those goals. The first step was modeling that got him into the lime-light and from there it was but a matter of time before he stepped into films when Nargis Dutt saw him at a party and asked him to meet her husband-Sunil Dutt who was looking for a new villian to cast in Man Ka Meet the launch pad of his younger brother Som Dutt. Even though VINOD KHANNA was keen to play a leading role yet he was shrewd enough not to say no to a film maker of Sunil Dutt's stature.

Rather than sit at home waiting for hero roles to knock on his doors he agreed to plunge into Bollywood with the best of offers and then move with the tide. Thus VINOD KHANNA arrived in Indian Cinema as a lead villian while the chocolate face Som Dutt made his debut as a hero. While this film proved to be a launch pad for VINOD KHANNA the outsider poor Som Dutt did not get to do another film again even though he happened to be Sunil Dutt's brother. Call it irony or whatever!!

The next few years saw VINOD KHANNA rise as a top rung villian who could actually challenge the likes of Pran, Premnath, Prem Chopra who were ruling as the top bad men in the film industry. Even while he was going great guns as a villian he was clear that eventually he wanted to be a full fledged hero and so between playing the much in demand baddie in most A grade films he did not hesitate to play hero roles in small banner films with over the top heroines on the verge of retirement or those struggling newcomers with whom no top hero was keen to work with.

Eventually VINOD KHANNA managed to break the barrier with F.C.Mehra's Elaan when he was paired with the then struggling starlet called Rekha and that opened the gates for him for the industry sit up and take notice that there was a lot more to this handsome villian and he could woo the masses at the box-office.

The big breaks in VINOD KHANNA's career taking him from top villian to promising hero were destined to come from Raj Khosla who gave him three of his biggest hits Mera Gaon Mera Desh (opposite Dharmender) Kaache Dhaage(opposite Kabir Bedi) and Nehle Pe Dehla(oppositementor Sunil Dutt) these films paved the way for him to stand up to top heroes and make his presence felt and what's more his roles were now projecting him no longer as a villian but actually as a parallel hero in a negative role. With these films indeed VINOD KHANNA had arrived also as a hero and that was when he started to cut upon villian roles and thus unintentionally made space for another unconventional villian-Shatrughan Sinha when they were both paired in Gulzar's Mere Apne.

These films saw a positive swing inhis career and his ratings zoomed so much so that now he was flooded with hero roles in top banner films like Prakash Mehra's Haath Ki Safai, The Burning Train,Qurbani, Kudrat, Shaque,Inkaar,Khoon Pasina, Amar Akbar Anthony, Parvarish,Muqaddar Ka Sikandar and loads of top banner films.Indeed there was a deluge of VINOD KHANNA films so much so that he was now racing neck to neck with AMITABH BACHCHAN for the top slot.

Then came a slew of personal tradigies that simply shook the very roots of VINOD KHANNA and he was so badly shattered that he threw it all up and landed at the feet of Bhagwan Rajneesh seeking calm and solace at his Ashram in Pune. His wife Geetanjali walked out on him as he moved in bag and baggage into the Ashram to be closer with his master. He had lost all interest with the outside world even while his big banner films were rocking the box-office.

Suddenly everthing went topsy turvy as for the next four years VINOD KHANNA cut all ties with the outside world as he transformed from VINOD KHANNA the Bollywood superstar into ACHARYA VINOD BHARTI the personal gardner of Bhagwan Rajneesh. From Pune he moved to USA along with his master putting his personal and personal life on hold.

Full credit goes to VINOD KHANNA who rocked Bollywood with his very comeback film Insaaf opposite DIMPLE KAPADIA that was a runaway hit and followed it up with more box-office busters like Satyamev Jayate,Kshyatria,Mahadev & Ghulam.Once again VINOD KHANNA was back where he belonged and it seemed as though nothing had changed since he packed his bags and left seeking calm and serenity. Welcomed back by his fans warmly he found his niche in Bollywood again and a downpour of offers landed on his lap as though he had never walked out of films a few years ago.

From acting politics was a natural diversion and he opted to stand from his hometown Gurdaspur and not surprising he won three times in a row as he promised to convert Gurdaspur into Paris just as Lalu Prasad Yadav had promised to make the roads of Bihar as smooth as "Hema Malini's cheeks" (Kya Cheek Hai)!!!

With both his sons Akshaye Khanna and Rahul Khanna embedded in films there are no prizes for guessing that even at 60 plus he is much in demand doing tailor made roles in any film that he chooses to sign when time permits as he travels extensively between Paris & Gurdaspur!!!

                                    VINOD KHANNA BARES HIS HEART!!!

"I can say it with my hand on my heart that I've genuinely given my best to politics and I will continue to do so but then once an actor always an actor so I was restless to get back to films but was only waiting for the right time to return!!"

"Amrita (Singh) is a good girl and we're good friends because opposite poles attract each other!!!"

"Bhagwan Rajneesh has the same place in my life that he always held.He is my true Guru and I always lead my life on his principles and the path he showed me when he was alive!!!"

"Basically I'm looking for some very good roles to make up for all the lost time!!"

"I'm always open to acting with both my sons who are very fine and talenteds actors provided some director can come up with a script that does justice to all three of us..Johnny Bakshi was keen to sign us for his project being directed by Vikram Bhatt but none of us is satisfied with the script so far, so the project is on hold!!!!'

BY: THE LIP

(CHHAYANKAN FEATURES)