Veteran actor Vinod Khanna may have given several interviews related to his career in Bollywood and politics, but in this rare tell-all interview with host and colleague Simi Garewal, he speaks about his sudden and the most unexpected decision to quit Bollywood, to be with his guru Rajnish popularly referred to as Osho, his second marriage, and a lot more.
The actor-turned-politician and former union Minister Vinod Khanna passed in Mumbai on Thursday morning after a prolonged illness. He was hospitalised for over a month for suspected cancer and breathed his last at 70.
The popular star, who entered BJP in 1997, became the Member of Parliament in 1999. And the fact that the host of the show Garewal begins the show by congratulating Khanna makes it evident that the episode was shot after his election. Even though Khanna admitted in the interview that he didn’t enter politics because he was a ‘political’ animal’, his perspective to take on the responsibility was quite interesting and convincing. “No, it wasn’t that I was a political animal that’s why I came in the foreground. Just that I felt this country now needs a change in policies, in the government and I think people like us used to sit in the sitting room and discuss politics and criticize the government have to now come forward and do work for the nation. It just happened that people trusted me," he said.
While it is important for a politician to grow a thick skin and ensure the criticism doesn’t cut him/her to the core, Khanna felt one needs to be “sharp, very together, very aware and that’s the kind of politician needed now. And somebody who really wants to work. I think any MP who doesn’t work for his constituency doesn’t have any business to be there."
In June 1978, when he was at the peak of stardom, he announced his decision to quit movies and join Osho at a press conference. On being asked what made him take up the decision, he said, “My own mind, my mind was thinking too much. My mind was very hyper. Thoughts were all over the place and I was very angry in the sense that I had reached a saturation point where people can press your buttons and make you react – your emotions, your anger and it wasn’t under my control. Yet I used to see when I meditate these things don’t affect at all and you become the master of your mind. And these were the things that drove me to say that I have had enough film, I have had enough fans, I have made enough money. I felt that if I really had to go deeper into meditation, I need to give full time to it. I have to live in an ashram, and at the feet of my guru. So obviously there was a need within me."
While the 90s quite clearly saw Khanna’s downfall in his career, things looked much better in his personal life. The star announced his marriage to second wife Kavita Daftary, daughter of prominent industrialist Sarayu Daftary in May 1990.
From their personal meetings to how much Daftary enjoyed speaking to Khanna, the husband-wife duo share all the details. Watch the interview to know more about the veteran star.
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