Vinod Khanna

Some Lesser Known Facts About Vinod Khanna

• Does Vinod Khanna smoke: No (used to smoke)

• Does Vinod Khanna drink alcohol: No

• Khanna was born in a Punjabi family. Soon after his birth, the country underwent partition and his family migrated from Peshawar to Mumbai.

• Khanna aspired to be an engineer at first; however, his father admitted him to a commerce college so that he could assist in carrying the family business (of textiles) forward.

• He was never interested in getting a commerce degree and hence started participating in other co-curricular activities in college, one of which was “theater”.

• During the same time, he fell in love with one of her theater mates named Gitanjali. After a few months of courtship, the couple decided to get married as soon as they find some employment.

• In an interview, Khanna revealed that his father never supported any decision that he made. When Khanna told his father that he wanted to act, his father pointed a gun at him and said that Khanna would breathe his last if he goes against his father’s decision. However, her mother intervened and eventually convinced the ‘head of the family’, but with a condition that if Khanna fails to establish himself even after a period of two years, he would then join the family business.

• Fortunately for Khanna, within a week of release of his debut film, Mann Ki Baat, the actor had as many as 15 film offers on the table.

• In a weird move, Khanna completely abandoned his acting career in 1982 and became a disciple of spiritual guru- Osho. For this purpose, he immigrated to “Rajneeshpuram”, Osho’s commune in the United States, where he stayed for about five years, and became the latter’s “gardener”.

• Back here, his wife, Gitanjali, and their sons- Akshaye and Rahul felt completely deserted. As a result, the couple eventually divorced and Khanna joined the film industry again.

• Khanna’s 1980 Blockbuster film, Qurbani, was first offered to Amitabh Bachchan. The latter, however, denied the offer and his ‘loss’ became Khanna’s ‘gain.’

• Interestingly, Sanjay Dutt’s debut film, Rocky, was first offered to Vinod Khanna.

• Although the film industry was booming with the likes of Amitabh Bachchan, Rajesh Khanna, Rishi Kapoor, Jeetendra, Dharmendra and Jackie Shroff, Khanna still managed to become the second highest paid actor from 1987-1994.

• In July 2002, Khanna was appointed the Union Minister for culture and tourism.