The Last Days Of Vinod Khanna.....

Ali Peter John

Vinod Khanna had started off as a villain, discovered by Sunil Dutt in his home production,“Mann Ka Meet"which also introduced his brother, Som Dutt, Leena Chandavarkar and another villain, Ranjeet.

Vinod went on to be one of the leading young villain when he changed tracks and took to playing the hero and was much more successful.

He was at the very peak of his career and was considered the only competitor for Amitabh Bachchan and according to every trade pundit, he was almost the number one after“Amar Akbar Anthony".

He could have made the best of this God-sent opportunity, but he had already fallen for a Godman called Osho or Bhagwan Rajneesh. Vinod quit acting and joined his Bhagwan in Oregon in America and was named Swami Vinod Bharati and was appointed as the chief gardener of his bhagwan's gardens where he lived in anonymity with a long beard and the only contact he had with the industry was with his friend, Gulzar who had directed him in“Achanak"and“Lekin".

It took him five years to know the truth about his Bhagwan, he quit the bhagwan's heaven in Oregon and came back to Bombay where he had no home, no family and no career.

He however fought back with some good films“Insaaf",“Dayavaan"and“Chandni". He also got married to Kavita Daftary and had two children from her, a son called Saashi and a daughter, Bharti. He had divorced or separated from his first wife, Geetanjali but was in touch with his sons Rahul and Akshaye and even started his production house to launch Akshaye.

He joined the BJP, won the elections from Gurdaspur in Punjab and was even the Union Minister twice.

But the good times didn't last long. He was losing ground as a politician and was no longer getting the roles he wanted.

He called me to his house one morning and asked me if I could do something to get him the kind of roles Amitabh was playing. I said I could only try. He was so desperate that he accepted any and every role in films like“Red Alert"and other such films which led him nowhere. The last film he did was Rakesh Nath's(Rikku)“Guns Of Benaras"in which he played the father of Rakesh Nath's soon, Karan Nath and he was a very frustrated man and to add to his misery, he was diagnosed with some gall bladder ailment which made it difficult for him even to walk. The ailment led to cancer and within a few days, he was gone, gone away from all the glory that could be his, all his dreams that could be fulfilled if he had not fallen for a fake Bhagwan and if he had not taken all the wrong steps at all the right times.

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