by SURYATAPA BHATTACHARYA
Women swooned over his photograph and wrote him letters in blood. Fans waited outside his home for days trying to catch a glimpse of him. A 1974 BBC documentary, Bombay Superstar, called him “the biggest star in the biggest film industry in the world”.
As news spread yesterday morning of the death of Bollywood’s first heart-throb, Rajesh Khanna, hundreds of fans gathered outside his residence, blocking traffic on Mumbai’s busy Carter Road.
Khanna’s reign as Bollywood’s top star lasted nearly three decades. He had 15 consecutive box-office hits in the 1970s – a record that still stands in Bollywood. He appeared in more than 160 films and won scores of awards, mostly for his roles as a romantic hero.
“Rajesh Khanna was called the first superstar as he was the first to have the public devotion and hysteria associated with his fan following,” said Rachel Dwyer, a professor of Indian Cultures and Cinema at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. “I think he was popular because he could seem very ordinary, the boy next door, and yet also be exceptional. For example, if you see him he is nice looking but when he smiles then his extraordinary charm becomes apparent,”
Khanna’s enormous success was new to India. Screaming fans surrounded him whenever he appeared in public. Women waited outside film studios for hours and went hysterical when he appeared. They would kiss his car as he tried to drive away.
The National for more
(Thanks to Robin Khundkar)
Red Rose (in Hindi/Urdu) with Poonam Dhillon and Rajesh Khanna (1942-2012)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIfpCBKmECk