Vinod Khanna Was The First Bollywood Star To Get A Vanity Van
He was the sex symbol with shades of grey in an era populated by goody-goody heroes and the late superstar Vinod Khanna was a pioneer in other ways too
Bet you did not
know this about enigmatic superstar Vinod Khanna. He was the first actor in
Bollywood to get a vanity van. Before that the stars had to make do with a
meagre umbrella and a chair in between shots.
I got to know this
interesting tidbit while interviewing the superstar at his home in South
Mumbai.
It was 2014 (May
7) and I was working at Mumbai Mirror.
His film Koylanchal was about to release and the 2014 Lok Sabha elections were
on the anvil too.
During the
interview, while speaking about the current generation of stars and their
comfortable lives, he spoke about his own heydays.
“Actors are
used to working in tough conditions. I am from an era when we didn't even have
vanity vans. I was the first actor to get one,” said the superstar.
And on
Thursday morning, the pioneer
passed away. The ‘70s superstar, who famously gave up his career to become a
disciple of Osho, was a true icon.
Such was Vinod
Khanna’s allure that he was nicknamed the Sexy Sanyasi by the media when he
left Bollywood to join his guru.
In his long
Bollywood career, he worked in more than 100 films, and was an active
politician, a member of Parliament from Gurdaspur, Punjab.
The action star of
The Burning Train and the heartbreaker of Qurbani, got his Bollywood break when
Sunil Dutt decided to launch him in Man ka Meet (1968).Then in 1980, at the
peak of his career, Vinod Khanna left Bollywood for Oregon. If stories are to
be believed, he transformed into an able gardener at the Rajneeshpuram ashram.
Coming back to the
vanity van, Vinod Khanna was truly a pioneer in more ways than one.
RIP Vinod Sir!
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