Mumbai: Braving a persistent downpour all morning on Thursday, thousands of fans bid a sad farewell to Bollywood’s first superstar Rajesh Khanna, 69, who died on Wednesday at his home in suburban Mumbai.
His final journey in a white-flower bedecked truck in which his body was placed in a glass casket came out from his home Aashirwad at Carter Road, Bandra, and went towards the Paraahans Crematorium in Vile Parle.
Khanna’s estranged wife Dimple Kapadia, his daughter Rinki Khanna and her husband, his son-in-law and Bollywood star Akshay Kumar and son Aarav accompanied the cortege. His older daughter Twinkle Khanna Kumar is expecting her second child. Fans thronged the streets and huge crowds waited at Vile Parle as fans threw flowers on the casket.
Sources said Khanna’s grandson Aarav lit the funeral pyre with his father assisting him.
A number of Bollywood bigwigs attended the funeral including Amitabh Bachchan and his son Abhishek who had to make their way through over enthusiastic, jostling fans wanting to take a close look, photograph and even touch them. Though a huge contingent of police was deployed for the funeral, policemen at the crematorium had to struggle to keep fans away from the Bachchans and other members of the film fraternity who came to pay homage to Khanna.
For a star who almost lived like a recluse and considered to have been forgotten after his heyday of blockbusters in the 70s, his death brought back vivid memories of the brilliant performer that Khanna was and his loss not just to the film industry but to the nation.
Acting in over 163 feature films, with several super hits that had compelling stories and even more gripping music, Khanna’s style of acting endeared him to millions of fans, especially women and young girls who even married his photographs and wrote love letters to him in blood. Even at the funeral, many women could be seen holding bunches of roses for an actor described as the king of romance. His marriage to Dimple who was only 16 and he was 31 broke many a woman’s heart then.
The actor, fondly called Kaka by his family and friends, dies on Wednesday morning following a liver infection.
His last journey generated the same frenzy that he did when he attained stardom in the 1970s.
Among the Bollywood stars who attended his last rites were Sudhir Mishra, Rani Mukerji, Karan Johar, Sajid Khan, Vinod Khanna and Aadesh Shrivastava.
Khanna started his career with the 1966 film “Akhari Khat” and went on to give hit films like “Aradhana”, “Kati Patang”, “Anand” and “Amar Prem” that propelled him to dazzling fame.
His death surprised the nation, though there were recent reports of his illness, and there was a sudden outpouring grief everywhere with all TV channels giving continuous coverage to Khanna by playing snatches of his film clippings, songs that were so integral to success of his films and reactions from everyone who matter in Bollywood.
Several fans carried posters of his photograph and followed the funeral procession.
Hindi film industry’s prominent people who once worked with Khanna have been speaking of about Khanna’s professionalism he was when it came to acting. Whether the euphoria of success had a negative effect on him or the emergence of action hero Amitabh Bachchan affected his career is not clear.
Khanna last came back into the limelight when a commercial directed by R. Balki, a filmmaker, was recently aired on TV. Balki in an interview to a newspaper said, “He wanted to end the ad with a little jog and four steps from his famous son “Acha Toh Hum Chalte Hain”. It was awesome.”
– With inputs from IANS
