When Vinod Khanna’s wife said he was a ‘very taxing’ person to live with

Vinod Khanna died in 2017 due to cancer. He was 70. October 6 marks the late actor’s birth anniversary. In an old interview, Vinod’s second wife Kavita Khanna had spoken about his sudden retirement from films in 1978, his life at Osho ashram, his second marriage, and much more. She also admitted, he was ‘a very taxing person to live with’. Vinod and Kavita were making a joint appearance on Simi Garewal’s chat show, Rendezvous with Simi Garewal. Also read: When Vinod Khanna spoke candidly about his views on sex

Vinod and Kavita shared two children – son Sakshi Khanna and daughter Shraddha Khanna. Vinod also had two sons – actors Akshaye Khanna and Rahul Khanna – with his first wife Gitanjali. In an old episode of Rendezvous with Simi Garewal, Vinod had opened up about his decision to leave behind stardom at his peak, and embracing spirituality. The veteran actor was last seen in the 2015 film Dilwale alongside Shah Rukh Khan.

Vinod had said about his decision to leave films, “My mind made me do that. My mind was hyper, my thoughts were all over the place. I was very angry as I had reached a saturation point. People can press your buttons and make you react… but it’s not under your control. When I would meditate, I realised I could master my mind. These things drove me to say – I’ve given enough films, I have given enough time, made enough money… now I need to give myself completely to meditation and be with my guru. It was a need within me.”

In the same interview, when Vinod’s wife Kavita was asked if it was difficult to live with him, she said, “He is a very taxing person to live with. But that is Vinod and that is what I liked about him when we first started talking to each other. He was extending boundaries of thought and it was wonderful to do at midnight when I was in that space. To have it do that every day with routine things you do in life is a little taxing. But then you know, I think the strength that you have to carry it to an extreme, also becomes our weakness. Like he admires my mind, but when it gets too analytical, he doesn’t like it.”

Vinod entered the film industry with Sunil Dutt’s Man Ka Meet in 1968, and went on to earn fame for films like Mera Gaon Mera Desh (1971). He was later seen in movies such as Amar Akbar Anthony, Muqaddar Ka Sikandar and The Burning Train, to name a few. He had joined the BJP in 1997, and became a member of parliament in 1999. On April 27, 2017, weeks after being hospitalised, Vinod died due to bladder carcinoma after being admitted to Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital in Mumbai.