Few people could make a greater case that their life was supposed to be a book. Rajesh Khanna spent the larger part of his career in the shadow of his own popularity, like a shooting star condemned to darkness after a spectacular run. Despite the fact that Khanna's last enormous smash was forty years ago, he remains the bar by which every Bollywood star is judged.
Rajesh Khanna, the original superstar,' is the subject of the first-ever biography.
Khanna, during a period when movie stars were actually larger than life, was the one who created the term 'superstar.' Jatin Khanna was born to middle-class parents but was adopted by wealthy cousins who raised him as a prince. He was already well-known as the struggler who drove an exotic sports vehicle when he won the Filmfare-United Producers Combine Talent Hunt.
The world was at Khanna's feet, with seventeen consecutive blockbuster singles and widespread devotion never witnessed before or since. Everything he came into contact with turned to gold. People bringing sick children for his 'healing' touch after Haathi Mere Saathi, ladies penning him messages in blood, marrying his portrait, and donning white when he married Dimple Kapadia - the panic he aroused was unsurpassed. Then everything changed in a span of months. Just three years after Aradhana (1969), Khanna's career went into a tailspin as stunning as his dizzying climb, and he never fully recovered.
Dark Star examines the phenomena of a performer who redefined the term 'film star.' The compelling tale of Gautam Chintamani seeks to make sense of what made Rajesh Khanna who he was and what led to his astonishing collapse. A one-of-a-kind narrative of a remarkable life.
Harper Collins Publishers India published the book in 2014. Gautam Chintamani is the author of 'Dark Star: The Loneliness of Being Rajesh Khanna' 2014.
