Dark Star: The Loneliness of Being Rajesh Khanna - Tapa dura

Rajesh Khanna is considered to be a pioneer - Bollywood's first superstar. His fame and adulation gave the industry a new word - Superstar. In the late sixties or early seventies, the word Superstar was as alien as the Rs 100 crore club was a few years ago. Interestingly, a whole generation grew up without experiencing the real super stardom of Rajesh Khanna. Post his death, Rajesh Khanna was back in the news in a big way. The years preceding his death, he was virtually absent from the media, so the noise became even bigger post his death. Rajesh Khanna memorabilia became in once again, books were written on the star. However, this book cannot be painted with the same brush as with some of the other biographies. The writer never met the star, so that way this book is unique. And that way it should connect with the generation who never experienced the star's stardom. Also, it understood the writer could extract no or limited information from the dead star's wife. The book delves on the short-lived stardom of Rajesh Khanna and his life-long fight to accept his non stardom. Such was Rajesh Khanna's flair in his hey days, it seemed to Khanna that he would remain a star till his old age. And in his behaviour, he was every inch the truant superstar - coming to sets late, being rude to people etc etc. Ironically, one of the actors who was at the receiving end of Khanna's idisyncracies went to replace him as a Superstar and remained a superstar for the longest period of time - Amitabh Bachchan. The most interesting aspect of this book is not the depiction of the superstar aspect of Rajesh Khanna but the fight of the man with his own demons. The conflict led him to do things which led to even bigger conflicts in his mind, thus removing him from mainstream even further. Alcohol was a steady companion and this book certainly helps in de-glamourising this liquid which has acted as an opium for many Hindi film actors. This is a very interesting book and by far the best on the dead Superstar. Easy to read and you will enjoy reading this even of you are not a Rajesh Khanna fan or for that matter, a Hindi film afficianado. --Abhijit Lahiri Nov 6, 2014

An excellent insight into the dark side of the brightest star. Its really heartbreaking to read how an actor Rajesh Khanna was consumed by a star Rajesh Khanna. The author Chintamani deserves all applauds for his keen research on the erstwhile star. The book provides a comprehensive review of most of the Khanna starer movies. Yet one significant but forgotten Dharm aur Kanoon found no mention. All in all a treat for all Khanna fans --Ravi Kumar Dec 26, 2014

Took this book for a read during my flight. A nice piece for people who like dramatics and would like to know the details of the Mr Khanna's life and what actually happens on ground, of the famous films made. --Ankur Sharma Dec 10, 2014

FOREWORD BY SHARMILA TAGORE The first-ever biography of the enigmatic Rajesh Khanna, the original 'superstar' If ever a life was meant to be a book, few could stake a stronger claim. Like a shooting star doomed to darkness after a glorious run, Rajesh Khanna spent the better half of his career in the shadow of his own stardom. Yet, forty years after his last monstrous hit, Khanna continues to be the yardstick by which every single Bollywood star is measured. At a time when film stars were truly larger than life, Khanna was even more: the one for whom the term 'superstar' was coined. Born Jatin Khanna to middle-class parents, the actor was adopted by rich relatives who brought him up like a prince. By the time he won the Filmfare-United Producers Combine Talent Hunt, he was already famous for being the struggler who drove an imported sports car. With seventeen blockbuster hits in succession and mass adulation rarely seen before or since, the world was at Khanna's feet. Everything he touched turned to gold. The hysteria he generated - women writing him letters in blood, marrying his photograph and donning white when he married Dimple Kapadia, people bringing sick children for his 'healing' touch after Haathi Mere Saathi - was unparalleled. Then, in a matter of months, it all changed. Khanna's career hit a downward spiral as spectacular as his meteoric rise just three years after Aradhana (1969) and never really recovered. Dark Star looks at the phenomenon of an actor who redefined the 'film star'. Gautam Chintamani's engaging narrative tries to make sense of what it was that made Rajesh Khanna and what accounted for his extraordinary fall. A singular account of a wondrous life.