Vinod Khanna with his spiritual guru Rajneesh
Vinod Khanna was one of the iconic Bollywood celebs in India and like many of them, his life was also full of controversies. The late actor had raised many eyebrows after he left his family to join the famous Rajneesh Movement.
Today on Vinod Khanna's 74th birth anniversary we bring you some trivia on how his family, especially his younger son Akshaye reacted on his father leaving their family.
Vinod who became a follower of Osho in 1975 and moved to Oregon, USA, left behind his wife and two sons Rahul and Akshaye. While recalling the memories of those days, Akshaye said in opened up about his father in an interview to Mid-Day in January. He said, “(The influence) To not only leave his family, but to take ‘sanyaas’ (renunciation). Sanyaas means giving up your life in totality — family is [only] a part of it. It’s a life-changing decision, which he felt that he needed to take at the time. As a five-year-old, it was impossible [for me] to understand it. I can understand it now.”
He further added, “In the sense that something must have moved him so deeply inside, that he felt that that kind of decision was worth it for him. Especially, when you have everything in life. And when life doesn’t look as though there’s much more that you can have. A very basic fault-line/ earthquake has to occur within oneself to make that decision. But also stick by it. One can make the decision and say this doesn’t suit me — let’s go back."
Akshay had also spoken about his father coming back after the movement. He had said, “It was just the fact that the commune was disbanded, destroyed, and everybody had to find their own way. That’s when he came back. Otherwise I don’t think he would’ve ever come back."
Vinod Khanna wasn't the only celeb who became a disciple of Osho, famous Bollywood names like Mahesh Bhatt, Parvin Babi were also influenced by the spiritual leader back then.
Vinod Khanna passed away on April 2017 due to cancer.
