Vinod Khanna
Vinod Khanna was a classic underachiever. He was devastatingly good-looking, immensely popular and had the best of films. Yet he never attained the heights of success that an Amitabh Bachchan or Dharmendra, two of his contemporaries, did. But what set him apart from the rest of the actors of his time was his attitude and penchant for risk-taking. As he says, “I choose to live by spirit and not by life’s script.” Masala! flips through the pages of his interesting life.
The initial years
Rebuilding Life
Vinod was born on October 6, 1946 in Peshawar to Kamla and Kishanchand Khanna. He had four siblings – three sisters and a brother. His father was a rich businessman. Shortly after Vinod’s birth, the partition between India and Pakistan took place and the Khannas fled Peshawar and came to Mumbai. “My early years were spent in South Mumbai and it will always have a special place in my heart,” Vinod says of those days.
Discovering His Calling
Vinod’s family spent their first few years in Mumbai and then moved to Delhi for a bit before shifting back to Mumbai. However, Vinod was packed off to Barnes, a boarding school in Devlali. “I was a favourite with most teachers and often got out of trouble because of that,” he recollects. It was in boarding school that he first began flirting with acting. “I had just watched Mughal-E-Azam and it changed my life. I began acting in school plays and decided that this was something I’d like to try out,” says Vinod. It was also during his college days that he met Geetanjali Talyarkhan, a model, “We had the same circle of friends and soon started dating,” he reveals.
His First Break
He got a break in films when he was noticed by Sunil Dutt at a party and was offered a role in a film Dutt was making for his brother, Somu. Vinod was game but his father wasn’t impressed. “My dad held a gun to my head and threatened me, ‘I’ll shoot you if you enter Bollywood!’ Finally, my mother convinced him to allow me to join the industry and try my luck for two years – if I didn’t click, I would join the family business.” That’s how Vinod made his debut, as a villain, in Man Ka Meet in 1968. The film wasn’t a hit but he was noticed. “I then signed 15 films in a week,” he recalls.
