Bhoolie Bisree Yadein/ Memories of the nineties with super star turned politician Rajesh Khanna

Bhoolee Bisree Yadein/Down the memory lane
This picture is also of the nineties after the Uttarkashi earthquake of Garhwal, Uttarakhand.

I remember, those days, there was a usual trend of sending the relief materials to the earthquake affected villages of Uttarkashi, not only from the various nook n corners of the country but also from abroad. This natural disaster, an earthquake claimed several lives and led to colossal loss of properties and economy . DELHI being the capital of India was also in the forefront to dispatch maximum relief material to the victims and their families of this Himalayan Zone Uttarakashi, Chama village financially n in kind.

As a sequel to this, Mr. Ramesh Dutta, the then municipal councillor(Gandhi cap) from Minto Road Delhi and Rajesh Khanna’s ardent follower and a very humorous politician as well, arranged a truck full of relief materials like food stuffs, medicines and clothes for Uttarkashi villagers n invited Rajesh Khanna, the then New Delhi MP to flagoff the vehicle from Lajpat Nagar, Delhi.

Since I was looking after Kaka’ s media n political affairs, I usually ocompanied him in meetings n functions and as such, was there on that day as well having accompanied him from his house.

It may be recalled that the first and original super star of India Rajesh Khanna joined active politics on the personel inviation of the prime minister Rajiv Gandhi whom Kaka respected and adored too much. It was his long cherished dream to enter parliament as an MP n then become minister but after his political mentor’s death everything failed.

Prior to joining active politics Kaka did 106 solo hero films of which 97 got released between 1967 and 2013. He acted in only 22 films with multi-star cast. 82 of the 127 films with Khanna as the lead protagonist (of them 117 released and 11 unreleased) were critically acclaimed films with ratings above 4 stars out of 5 by film reviewers of various newspapers unanimously.

Rajesh Khanna aka Kaka made his debut in 1966 with Aakhri Khat. During his career he appeared in more than 168 feature films and 12 short films. He received the Filmfare Best Actor Award three times and the BFJA Awards for Best Actor (Hindi) four times. In 1991, he was awarded the Filmfare Special Award for achieving the feat of doing the most solo hero films in Hindi Cinema and in 2005, he received the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award. He was the highest paid Indian actor from 1970 to 1987 whereas Amitabh Bachchan shared the same tag with Khanna from 1980 to 1987.[16]

Kaka was also a Lok Sabha member of the Indian National Congress from New Delhi (Lok Sabha constituency) from 1992 to 1996.

He married Dimple Kapadia in March 1973, eight months before her debut film Bobby was released and had two daughters from the marriage. Their elder daughter Twinkle Khanna is married to actor Akshay Kumar, while they also have a younger daughter Rinke Khanna.

Rajesh Khanna met his sad demise on 18 July 2012, after suffering from severe liver ailment. Kaka has been posthumously awarded India’s third highest civilian honour, Padma Bhushan. On 30 April 2013 he was bestowed the title First Superstar of Indian cinema at the Dadasaheb Phalke Academy Awards. He has also been honored with a stamp and statue in his likeness, and a road being renamed after him. (WP)

Seen in the picture is Kakaji interacting with me ( in beard) n others include Ramesh Dutta, councillor, Naresh Juneja n volunteers of the social organistion Swabhimani Welfare Society.

Sunil Negi, President, Uttarakhand Journalists Forum