Rajesh Khanna

Some Lesser Known facts About Rajesh Khanna

• Did Rajesh Khanna smoke?: Yes

• Did Rajesh Khanna Drink : Yes 

• Super Star Rajesh Khanna was an adopted child. He was adopted by his biological Father’s relative Chunni Lal Khanna, who was very rich.

• Rajesh Khana and Jitendra (Actor) went to St. Sebastian’s Gaon High School together. Also Rajesh Khana helped Jitendra in acting for his first audition.

• Rajesh Khanna owned a MG sports car in early 60’s and used to ride it for the auditions during his struggling period. His father had also bought MG Magnette mark IV, MG Midgit Sports Cars and MG MGA Roadster 1600 model, which he used to drive.

• Rajesh Khanna’s father  was against his becoming an actor, even then he participated in a talent contest, organised by Filmfare, which he won among 10,000 participants.

• His first film, ‘Akhri Khat’, was nominated for Oscars and went till final five.

• Rajesh Khanna wanted to marry Anju Mahendru, who was in a relationship with him for 7 years. But she was not ready for marriage, so they parted ways. Interestingly, when Rajesh Khanna was getting married to Dimple Kapadia, while heading to the wedding venue, he went through the same street in which Anju Mahendru lived.

• Rajesh Khanna had played double roles in as many as 12 movies viz. Raaz, Aradhna, Dharm aur Kannon, Kudrat, Sachcha Jhootha, Humshakal, Hum Dono, Unche Log, Mehbooba, Bhola Bhala, Dard, and Mahachor.

• All the movies wherein he acted alongside actress Mumtaz were blockbusters.

• He was the first Bollywood actor to have received the title of a ‘Super Star’ by film critics.

• For almost 3 decades of his career, he appeared in only 20 films, which starred more than one male lead actor.

• Rajesh Khanna used to sit and participate in the presentation and recording of his movie’s solo songs with the music director and Kishor Kumar. Notably, Kishor Kumar had sung most of the songs for Rajesh Khanna.

• He had a huge female fan following. Many of them had even sent him love letters written with blood. In fact, some of them had also got married to his photograph. Thus, he always needed police protection while in public.

• The famous song ‘Roop Tera Mastana’ from the movie Aradhna was filmed in a single shot.

• In his 45-year long career, Rajesh Khanna worked in around 180 movies.

• In 1992, Rajesh Khanna won the by-election, which he had lost to L.K. Advani in 1991. He claimed that the other party had cheated to win, so the elections were organised again in 1992. After this victory, he worked for 5 years as an MP and did not work in any movie except ‘Khudai’ (1994).

• Rajesh Khanna was notorious for coming late on film sets. In an interview, Bollywood actor Prem Chopra, who worked with the superstar in many films, talked about one such incident when they were shooting for Haathi Mere Saathi (1971) and said,
  

  Rajesh Khanna was a misunderstood man by some people but he was very genuine where the work was concerned. The only problem with him was that if there was a 9 o’clock shift, he would come at 12. So, I had some incidents. I was doing a film in Madras called Haathi Mere Saathi. The film’s producer, Chinnappa Thevar, was a very strict man. So, he would send a man to pick up Rajesh Khanna at 6’o clock.”

  Mr. Chopra added,

  But even then, Rajesh Khanna would arrive on set by 11 or 12. After all, he was a very big hero. So, Thevar had appointed a man. The moment Rajesh Khanna would arrive, Thevar would beat up that man and abuse him. He would yell, ‘Don’t we give you money? Why do you come late?’ Rajesh Khanna understood what was happening. He became regular afterwards.” ^[1]The Indian Express