Rajesh Khanna, the first Superstar of Indian and Hindi Cinema with 74 Golden Jubilee Hits – (which includes 48 Platinum Jubilee Hits and 26 Golden Jubilee Hits). He was the highest – paid actor in Hindi Cinema throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

Rajesh Khanna was one of eight finalists from more than 10,000 contestants in the 1965 All India Talent Contest, organised by United Producers and Filmfare, along with other FTII students Subhash Ghai and Dheeraj Kumar. Rajesh Khanna won the contest along with Farida Jalal.

He made his film debut in 1966 film “Aakhri Khat”, directed by Chetan Anand, followed by Raaz, directed by Ravindra Dave, both of which were a part of his predermined prize for winning the All India United Producers, Talent Competition. G. P. Sippy and Nasir Hussain were the first to sign Rajesh Khanna after he won the contest. Aakhri Khat was India’s entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 40th Oscar Academy Awards in 1967.

Being under contract with United Producers, he got projects such as Aurat, Doli and Ittefaq. In Baharaon Ke Sapne, the response from the public in the first week of run forced the film’s ending to be changed from a tragic one to a happier one from the second week.

Through Aradhana he rose to “instant national fame” and film critics referred to him as the “First Superstar of India” owing to the crazy following he got and the big crowds he could pull. In this film Rajesh Khanna was cast in a double role (father and son) opposite Sharmila Tagore and Farida Jalal. Kishore Kumar became the official playback voice of Rajesh Khanna. They worked together until Kishore’s death.

Rajesh Khanna had 16 consecutive solo hit films and 2 non – solo hero films between 1969 and 1971. These were Aradhana, Bandhan, Ittefak, Do Raaste, Khamoshi, Safar, The Train, Kati Patang, Sachaa Jhutha, Aan Milo Sajàna, Choti Bahu, Aan Milo Sajna, Anand and Hathi Mere Sathi.

In 1972, Khanna acted in 11 releases including the Telgu film Bangaru Babu. That year, his films, Amar Prem, Apna Desh and Mere Jeevan Saathi earned more than Rs. 5 crore together. His other films of 1972 such as Dil Daulat Duniya, Bawarchi, Jordan Ka Ghulam and Shehzada earned more than Rs. 4.5 crores.

Raja Rani (King Queen) is 1973 film of Rajesh Khanna. As per the review of Raja Rani written in 2014 by The Hindu Newspaper, the film did well at the box office and, taking into consideration the inflation as of 2014, the film would have grossed more than 100 crores.

In the 1970s, his chemistry with Sharmila Tagore, Mumtaz, Asha Parekh, Zeenat Aman, Tanuja and Hema Malini were also popular with Audience.

Whenever Rajesh entered a hotel in Madras, there was a queue of 600 girls waiting to see him at midnight. During the peak of his career he would be mobbed during public appearances. Female fans sent him letters written in their blood. There used to be a line of cars of his producers and hysterical fans outside his bungalow every day.

Film critic Monojit Lahiri remembers “Girls married themselves to photographs of Rajesh Khanna, cutting their fingers and applying the blood as sindoor. Rajesh was God, there have never been such hysteria”.

Sharmila Tagore said in an interview to the Indian Express that “woman came out in droves to see Rajesh. They would stand in queues outside the studios to catch a glimpse. Delhi girls were crazier for him than Mumbai girls. He needed Police protection when he was in public. I have never seen anything like this before or since”.

In 1973, BBC also made a documentary on him named as Bombay Superstar as a part of their Man Alive Service. A textbook prescribed by the Mumbai University contained as essay, “The Charisma of Rajesh Khanna”.

Music remained one of the biggest attractions of all Rajesh Khanna films throughout his career. His films were always known for the music with chart buster soundtracks. The reason for this was that Khanna used to personally sit in music sessions with music directions. He used to be personally for recording of the solo songs to be picturised on him.

Khanna considered Guru Datt, Meena Kumari and Geeta Bali to be his idols. Khanna said in an interview “My inspirations include Dilip Kumar’s dedication and intensity, Raj Kapoor’s spontaneity, Dev Anand’s style and Shammi Kapoor’s rhythm.

Khanna’s films ran successfully in whole of India and not just Hindi speaking areas and he did film of every genre simultaneously and has more critically acclaimed films to his credit than all other Hindi actors of every generation. Khanna was the among the few actors who could manage to strike a balance between different kinds of cinema and remain popular with both kinds of audiences – masses and classes for displaying his craft.

Pyarelal of the Laxmikant – Pyarelal duo quoted in an interview that “Rajesh Khanna was lucky for us and we were lucky for him too. From the 1969 film Do Raste to the 1986 film Amrit, we gave hits together both as films and as music scores … When we went on our first overseas concert tour in 1984, he came and danced to three songs. He would then give his feedback after a day or two. But if he liked a song at the sitting, he would loudly shout “Wah ! Wah !” in appreciation …. It was God’s blessing that we came up with such a vast range of hit songs for him. He had great interest in music and a terrific sense of melody too.

Actor Tom Alter confessed “I still dream of being Rajesh Khanna. For me, in the early 1970s, he was the only hero – romantic to the core, not larger than life, so Indian and real – he was my hero; the reason I came into films and he still is”

Actor Irrfan Khan stated in an interview, “The kind of craze witnessed by Rajesh Khanna has not been duplicated by anyone. He was the biggest and the most real star Bollywood has produced. I’d say stardom is that feeling of being possessed by your idol; you are so overwhelmed with euphoria you lose touch with reality”.

The trend of wearing guru kurtas and belts on shirts became famous in the seventies and eighties because of Khanna.

At the insistence of Rajiv Gandhi, he started campaigning for Congress afte r 1984. Rajesh Khanna was a member of Parliament for the Indian National Congress, from the New Delhi constituency, where he won the 1992 by election, retaining his seat until 1996 after which he was not interested in active politics. After leaving parliament, he was a political activist for the INC and campaigned for the party till the 2012 Punjab Election.

Khanna and a group of foreign investors bought land in Shirdi in which built a religious resort for disciples of Sai Baba Shirdi.

Khanna won seven All India Critics Association (AICA) Best Actor Awards, and received 10 nominations. He won four Best Actor Awards in the Bengal Film Journalists’ Association Awards, and received 25 nominations. He won three Filmfare Special Award in 1991, after 25 years in the Hindi film industry. He received the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award at the 50th anniversary Filmfare Awards ceremony in 2005. He also received the IIFA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009.

Khanna was a life member of the International Film And Television Research Centre, the International Film And Television Club and the Asian Academy of Film & Television. He was Faculty Guest of “Specialised Cinema Courses At Asian School Of Media Studies”. In 2009, on his 67th birthday, Shemaroo Entertainment released his films and a song collection titled Screen Legends – Rajesh Khanna – the Original Superstar. In May 2012, Havells, the fan making company endorsed Khanna as Brand Ambassador for their new ad campaign featuring him in solo advertisement.

Photo courtesy Google. Excerpts taken from Google.