Film stars have always had a massive fan following with people going gaga over them but probably no Indian film actor enjoyed the craze that Bollywood’s first superstar Rajesh Khanna enjoyed. Everything from his style statement with collared kurtas and rolled back sleeves to having a Rajesh Khanna stamp to his dialogues like “Pushpa I hate tears” became iconic. But do you know how he got his foothold in the film industry? It was through an all-India talent hunt that the late superstar ended up winning.
Along with fellow FTII students Subhash Ghai and Dheeraj Kumar, Rajesh Khanna was one of eight finalists chosen from more than 10,000 contestants in 1965 All India Talent Contest, sponsored by United Producers and Filmfare. Along with Farida Jalal, Rajesh Khanna was adjudged the winner. The United Producers group was founded by BR Chopra, Bimal Roy, GP Sippy, HS Rawail, Nasir Husain, J Om Prakash, Mohan Saigal, Shakti Samanta and Subodh Mukherji, who also served as judges for the competition.
When the final scores were out, it was revealed that Rajesh Khanna had beaten Vinod Mehra by just one point and thus won the contest. Aakhri Khat, directed by Chetan Anand, and Raaz, directed by Ravindra Dave, both of which were included in his preset reward for winning the All-India United Producers’ Talent Competition, were his on-screen debuts. Aakhri Khat was India’s entry into the Best Foreign Film category at the Oscars that year but the movie was not nominated. Raaz was also a commercial success, earning around a crore at the box office.
After the success of Aradhana and Do Raaste, released in 1969, Rajesh Khanna never had to look back and became the first superstar of Hindi cinema. Although the superstardom was short-lived as the throne was passed over to Amitabh Bachchan in the mid-70s, it is believed that no other actor was able to achieve the fame and craze that Rajesh Khanna enjoyed.
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