“Pushpa, I hate tears,” said Rajesh Khanna to his co-star Sharmila Tagore in his iconic film Amar Prem. While “Pushpa” may have been able to hold her tears back at his injunction, for millions of Kaka’s fans, that simply wasn’t possible when news of his passing broke on Wednesday afternoon. There was a sense of deep dismay that the man who was called the “original superstar of India” was no more.

Javed Akhtar, whose early scriptwriting career is believed to have received a boost from Kaka’s patronage, remarked that while many had tried to copy the actor’s inimitable dance moves, body language and personality, none succeeded. Rajesh Khanna was an original, and that set him apart from the rest,” Javed says, adding, “The years between the late ’60s and early ’70s belonged to him. He was a paradoxical man in many ways: if he was happy, he celebrated that, but if he was sad, he made that very evident too.”
Among the others who worked with him, Kaka’s female co-stars would always talk about how they too would bask in his reflected glory when fans mobbed him during shoots. From Mumtaz to Sharmila Tagore, Kaka’s co-stars were quite amused at the hordes of female fans who would wait in their hotel lobby in the wee hours of the morning, hoping to catch a glimpse of their heartthrob. Yesteryear actress Saira Banu, who worked with Kaka in two films, says she has fond memories of the experience. “The aura he had, of a star, was intimidating. But he also had a great sense of humour. He would always keep everyone on the sets entertained. We’d meet Dimple and him often as we had a lot of common friends. In fact, he even came home to meet Sahibji (Dilip Kumar) on his birthday. I was hoping that he would bounce back from his liver problem but he couldn’t fight the battle of life anymore,” she says.
One of Kaka’s most popular roles was in Aradhana, opposite Sharmila Tagore and Farida Jalal, and filmmaker Subhash Ghai, who worked as assistant director on the film, says it was the start of a close friendship between him and Rajesh Khanna. The 69-year-old superstar’s bout of ill health therefore, came as a shock. “I had gone to Lilavati Hospital to meet him… his health was deteriorating, but in that condition too he was discussing the changing face of cinema. That speaks volumes about the man and connection with cinema,” says Subhash.
Quite apart from his influence over popular culture (his kurta-trousers look was copied all over the country) and the mass hysteria he managed to trigger, he also had the advantage of numbers on his side. “I don’t think any actor apart from Rajesh Khanna can boast of having 15 consecutive hit films,” points out director Sudhir Mishra.
But ultimately, it was an incandescent talent that made Rajesh Khanna the icon he was, says veteran actor-filmmaker Manoj Kumar. Lamenting over the fact that contract issues prevented Rajesh Khanna from working in a film he was planning (the actor had been discovered in a talent hunt), Manoj recounts, “We were in talks about working together, but he had to opt out. I remember he was close to tears when he explained the issue to me. He went on to become a legend purely by dint of hard work and talent. It’s difficult for me to believe that a man so full of life and enthusiasm is no more with us.”