1946
Born to Punjabi parents, Kamla and Kishanchand Khanna on October 6 in undivided India, Peshawar. The family moved to Mumbai after the country’s Partition. Later Khanna was enrolled in Sydenham College against his wishes. His father wanted him to study commerce and look after the family business.
1968
A self-confessed rebel, Khanna was one of South Mumbai’s legendary party animals. At a party, the future Bollywood star met Sunil Dutt who wanted to launch his brother Som in Bollywood. Dutt offered Khanna a supporting role in Man Ka Meet which was remake of Tamil film Kumari Penn. In an interview with Times of India, Khanna recalled his father putting a gun to his head, threatening to shoot him if he entered Bollywood. Had the actor’s attempt to join the industry failed, he would have joined the family business. More than a 100 films later Khanna eventually became a huge star in the Hindi film industry.
1971
After his debut, Khanna played the antagonist and small characters in films like Nateeja (1969) and Sachaa Jhutha (1970). He played the villain in the blockbuster hit Mera Gaon Mera Desh and in the same year had his first solo lead in Hum Tum Aur Woh. He married his college sweetheart Geetanjali with whom he had two sons Rahul and Akshaye.
1973
Gained critical acclaim for the film Achanak which despite being directed by lyricist Gulzar had no songs. The actor and Gulzar would work on five films from 1971 to 1991.
1975
Khanna became a follower of Osho (who was then known as Rajneesh) and was popularly referred to as the Sexy Sanyasi of the industry. It’s widely known that the actor would try to route shoots so he could visit the Osho ashram in Pune. He became distanced from his family as he got closer to his guru Rajneesh. He continued to act in films like Hera Pheri (1976), Amar Akbar Anthony (1977) and Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki (1978).
1982
At the peak of his career, Khanna left the film industry to devote his life to Osho/Rajneesh. At this point, Khanna and his wife divorced and he moved with Rajneesh to America. While there, the actor cleaned toilets and assumed the mantle of a gardener in a bid to aid his guru in the development of the Rajneeshpuram locality. During this time, Khanna was replaced in most of his upcoming projects. This included the film Mera Dost Mera Dushman (1984) which starred Shatrughan Sinha instead according to an interview Khanna gave to Blockbuster magazine.
1987
Rajneesh was deported in 1985 on grounds of serious crimes including an assassination attempt on the life of US Attorney Charles H. Turner. Khanna in turn decided to return to Bollywood. He made his comeback with Insaaf with Dimple Kapadia.
1990
He got married for the second time to Kavita Datary in 1990, with whom he has two children, Sakshi and Shraddha.
1997
Khanna joined politics as part of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and was elected from the Gurdaspur constituency in Punjab in the Lok Sabha polls. During the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, he became Culture and Tourism Union Minister in 2002 and then later the Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs. Khanna was re-elected from Gurdaspur in 2014.
1999
He received the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to the Hindi film industry.
2007
Made his television début with the daily soap Mere Apne that aired for a year on the channel 9X. It told the story of the Pandey family with Khanna as the patriarch.
2014
Khanna starred in his last major role in Koyelaanchal as the brutal antagonist of the film. This was followed by his last appearance on screen in Dilwale (2015) as protagonist Shah Rukh Khan’s father.
2017
The actor passed away this morning at 11.20 a.m. at the Sir H.N. Reliance Foundation Hospital after a battle with bladder carcinoma.
* Information from various sources online
