Vinod Khanna Death Anniversary: When The Actor Paid Back A Bollywood Project For Leaving It Incomplete To Join Osho

Vinod Khanna has been one of the most charismatic actors had Bollywood had ever seen. He had been a part of not just solo films but multi-hero projects. For a long period of time, he had been the second highest paid actor along with Shashi Kapoor and later was the third highest paid actor. Even after taking a break, he made an amazing comeback and delivered several hits.  He left Bollywood to be with Rajneesh, who is popularly known as Osho and stayed in his ashram in the US for almost four years.

He had been drawn towards Osho after the death of his cousin in an accident and after his mother passed away from injuries she sustained when she fell in her kitchen. Vinod Khanna wanted to leave everything and seek spiritual guidance. However, this was also the time when he had been shooting for a film called Shatruta which was directed by Mahesh Bhatt and also starrer Naseeruddin Shah and Rekha. It was produced by Sandeep Sethi, who had first gone to Vinod Khanna and it was the actor who suggested Mahesh Bhatt’s name as the director. The film was 75% complete when the actor decided to leave it. He even paid a hefty mount that had been used up during the shoot. Despite the producer’s plea, he just left it.

When he stopped answering the producer’s calls, Mahesh Bhatt apparently went to the U.S and tried to convince him for a month, but left without much progress. When Vinod Khanna came back in 1986, he did complete the project, but it never saw the light of the day and the producer faced a huge loss. It is also said that while he was in the U.S, he attempted to work in Hollywood films. He even stayed a few months in Hollywood to see if a deal can be cracked, but that never happened!