Vinod Khanna

Vinod Khanna Biography

Vinod Khanna is a talented and successful actor of Bollywood during 70’s and 80’s. He has been successful in solo hero roles as well as multi-star cast and has done a few successful movies along with Amitabh Bachchan like Amar Akbar Antony, Parvarish and Muquaddar ka sikhandar. His two sons are also successful actors of Bollywood - Akshay Khanna and Rahul Khanna.

Born in a business family, his desire to become an actor grew when he watched Mughal-E-Azam on big screen. His desire was to see himself on big screen. That’s the reason why he didn’t hesitate to take the role when he was chosen to do the role of villain in the movie Man ka meet. Following this movie, he did a few negative characters and all those movies were successful too – Manoj Kumar’s Purab aur paschim, Dharmendra’s Mera Gao mera desh and Rajesh Khanna’s supehit Sacha jootta.

But his attractive personality and killing smile brought him to limelight and he became a successful hero very soon. Gulzar’s projects Mere Apne and Achanak made him a star overnight and he never turned back after that. He did many successful movies as leading actor as well as supporting roles to Big B. After a string of movies as second hero like Amar Akbar Antony, Muquadar ka sikander and Hera pheri, he did another triangular love story aside Feroz Khan and Zeenat Aman in 1980 – Qurbani. This movie is still remembered for these three actors and its songs. It was a breakthrough movie in Vinod Khanna’s Bollywood life.  

As age passed by, he began to look over aged in big screen and his career oscillated in between hits and flops till he gave up his desire to act as leading actor. Chandini, Insaaf, Jurm and Dayawaan are among those successful hits during his second innings. He was noted for his performance in Lekin, paired with Dimple Kapadia. Slowly he began to accept character roles, of which majority include ‘police man’ or ‘army man’ roles. Jurm, Wanted, Himalaya putra, Pyra ka rog and Kranthi can be included in this list. Now, his sons are busy with Bollywood movies and he does a few roles, particularly guest appearances.

Among all the movies, he is most known for his police man character in Amar Akbar Antony opposite Shabana Azmi and romantic hero role in Muquaddar Ka Siquandar opposite Rakhi Gulzar. He has won Filmfare award once for his performance in Haath ki safai. But he was nominated for best actor for Qurbani and for supporting roles twice – Hera pheri and Muquadar ka Sikander.

After being hospitalized in Mumbai for a few weeks, Khanna died on 27 April 2017 and was said to be battling with advanced bladder cancer. 

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Updated: May 21, 2018