Veteran actor Vinod Khanna passes away, loses battle to cancer

Khanna was a sitting Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Gurdaspur district of Punjab.

Bollywood actor Vinod Khanna passed away in Mumbai on Thursday. The 70-year-old actor was suffering from cancer.

"Veteran actor and MP Vinod Khanna breathed his last at 11.20 am due to advanced bladder carcinoma," a statement by Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital said.

Khanna, who is a sitting Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Gurdaspur district of Punjab, was admitted to Sir H.N. Reliance Foundation Hospital and Research Centre in Girgaon, Mumbai, even on April 5.

His family had then said that the reason for his admission was severe dehydration.

A picture of Khanna looking pale and weak had gone viral in the social media after which the fans had expressed concern over his health.

The 70-year-old actor had appeared in 141 films after making his debut in 1968. He is remembered for his roles in films like Mere Apne, Mera Gaon Mera Desh, Gaddaar, Jail Yatra, Imitihaan, Inkaar, Kuchhe Dhaage, Amar Akbar Anthony, Rajput, Qurbani, Kudrat, Dayavan, Kaarnama, Suryaa: An Awakening and Jurm.

In 1982, at the peak of his film career, Khanna temporarily quit the film industry to follow his spiritual guru Osho Rajneesh. He returned to the film industry five years later and delivered hit movies such as Insaaf and Satyameva Jayate.

Khanna was born on October 6, 1946, in Peshawar (now Pakistan) and his family moved to India during the partition. He did his schooling from both Mumbai and Delhi. He graduated with a commerce degree from Sydenham College, Mumbai.

Khanna joined politics in 1997 and got elected from Gurdaspur on a BJP ticket.

In the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, he became Union minister for culture and tourism in 2002.

Later, he became a minister of state in the ministry of External Affairs. Khanna lost the 2009 election, but was elected again from Gurdaspur in 2014.

OneIndia News