Rajesh Khanna had the ‘arrogance of Napoleon’, his house was furnished as ‘a temple to himself’: When BBC journalist witnessed Kaka’s fall

Also read – Rajesh Khanna would insult Amitabh Bachchan behind his back, ignore him on set; angry Jaya Bachchan predicted he’ll be a nobody one day

Over shots of a film crew preparing for a day’s work, he said, “It’s 10 on a sticky summer morning, and the biggest star should be arriving at this studio. The superstar is Rajesh Khanna. He has the charisma of Rudolph Valentino, the arrogance of Napoleon, and he’s late. There’s nothing the director can do about it. He rewrites, yet again, the lines that his star should be speaking by now. He sweats and waits. Everyone is sweating and getting ready, and waiting.”

Rajesh Khanna breathed his last on July 18, 2012. (Photo: IMDb)

The director, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, was shown passing time by fine-tuning dialogue, while others on set played games and napped. The filmmaker said, “We are waiting for our hero. One very big problem is that our main stars work in many films simultaneously. They do about 10-12 films together.”

Two hours later, Khanna still hadn’t shown up. “What will you say to him when he arrives?” Pizzey asked the director, who replied, “He will come himself and explain to me why he’s late.” Pizzey asked, “And you will accept what he says?” Mukherjee responded, “That depends on what explanation he gives me.” Pizzey asked the director if all this waiting is increasing costs for the production, and the filmmaker said, “Fortunately, the labour is very cheap here.”

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Pizzey also documented his many attempts to interview Khanna, which saw being being turned away at the gate of his house on the first try. “On the Bombay coast, where the palms are stirred by the breeze of the Arabian Sea, the star lives in an impregnable dreamhouse. Getting in to interview Rajesh is like trying to get an audience with royalty. Only if a king says, ‘Come to my palace at 3’, he probably means it,” Pizzey narrated.

Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan in Namak Haraam. (Photo: Express Archives)

The crew eventually gained access to Khanna’s outhouse, and Pizzey reported, “Inside, the star has furnished it as a temple to himself. We read magazines about him, wait for another appointment that he doesn’t keep, and study his film awards. We arrange for another time to see him; sunset the next day. But it’s the same story; sunset arrives, but Rajesh doesn’t. For five days, this humbling experience of waiting for Rajesh goes on.”

The latter half of the documentary follows Khanna to a set in Kashmir, where he keeps the crew waiting even longer. Meanwhile, he is shown to be getting agitated over the failure of his five most recent films, and retaliating after being snubbed at the Filmfare awards. Khanna’s career spiralled shortly afterwards.