Legendary Bollywood actor Vinod Khanna passed away in a Mumbai hospital on Thursday. He gave in fighting cancer.
He was hospitalized last month and his son Rahul said at the time that his father was severly dehydrated. He was 70 years old and left his wife Kavita and four children mourning.
Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital said in a statement that Vinod’s advanced bladder cacinoma caused his death at 11:20am.
He was born in Peshawar on October 6, 1946, his family moved to Bombay soon after Partition. He worked in films such as Mere Apne, Insaaf and Amar Akbar Anthony during his long Bollywood career, and was last seen in Shah Rukh Khan’s Dilwale in 2015.
Known for his good looks and fiery acting, Vinod, who was also a lawmaker in India’s lower house of parliament, made a name for himself in the masala movies of the 70s and 80s before he gave up acting to become a disciple of self-styled godman Osho Rajneesh.
His second career in Bollywood was not as successful, and Vinod went into politics, representing Gurdaspur constituency in Punjab four times for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Remembering him director Mahesh Bhatt said that he was a brave man and also had a very kind heart. He had the guts to risk it all, to cut off his relationship with the movie industry and live in the ashram of Osho.
The legendary actor became one of the most famous film stars in the 1970s and 1980s. He was one of the few actors from that era who transitioned successfully from villain to hero.
He received the Filmfare award in the best supporting actor category for Haath Ki Safaai, and in 1999 he received the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award.
Sunil Dutt liked Vinod the minute he had set eyes on him, he was attracted to the fact that the young boy was from Peshawar (now in Pakistan), Dutt launched Khanna and his young brother Som Dutt in his home production Mann ka Meet (1968).
The promoters of “Baahubali 2 – The Conclusion”, one of the most highly awaited Indian films of the decade, cancelled the movie’s premiere on Friday due to Vinod’s death.
As a mark of respect to our beloved Vinod Khanna the entire team of Baahubali has decided to cancel the premiere tonight said a tweet from producer Karan Johar, who is marketing the Hindi version of the film.
Vinod’s funeral processions were carried today in the afternoon.
