Vinod Khanna was a magnificent man, he had the capacity to love people: Mahesh Bhatt

“For me, he is more than just a dazzling star, who continued to work past his prime. He is much more than a politician… He is someone, who touched my life when I was a struggling director when I was aspiring to become a director. It was his faith in my talent way back in time that resulted in me becoming a director. I would have been poorer, had he not touched my life. He was a magnificent man, very generous. He had the capacity to love people,” said Mahesh, who first directed Vinod in Lahu Ke Do Rang (1979), when the filmmaker was just five years into the film industry.

The duo soon became friends and it was Mahesh, who was introduced the actor, then at his career’s peak, to Rajneesh (also known as Osho) ashram in Pune. Years later, Vinod left movies, surrendering to the spiritual path of Osho. “We became close. I was instrumental in introducing him to the ashram. We used to travel to Pune in his Mercedes car. I was a struggler, I didn’t have money. He used to take care that my travels are funded. He was in the truest sense, a senior. These are the memories of our formative years,” Mahesh reminisced.

He worked with Vinod in two more films, Jurm (1990) and Maarg (1992). Vinod was an easy man, according to his director, and hence working with him was “always easy. He loved action. He used to do his own stunts.”

By mid-1990s, Vinod started withdrawing from Bollywood, and that is also the time that Mahesh and he began drifting apart. “The ideological differences between our thinking of the universe and the mystic were so radical that we drifted apart. But the memories of our early years glued us together. His universe completely changed. We began talking less. Of course, we would talk but the discourse of our relationship had undergone a change. There was a realisation from both ends about this…”

The fans and the industry might have missed him on screen, but the actor was quite happy with the life he led. “He looked for answers about life… and he told me that he was fulfilled by what he got but I don’t think so. I don’t think he got the answers. The last we spoke was almost a year ago. I called him to ask about his health, he was unwell. But he laughed and said, ‘I am fine.’ But I could hear that he was concealing something behind that smile,” Mahesh said.

Of the last few conversations that Mahesh had with him, the one which had the actor particularly happy was concerning his son Sakshi Khanna. “We spoke about Sakshi and there were talks about launching Sakshi in my film but that couldn’t materialise. But he was very happy that I spoke highly of Sakshi. The fact that I was fond of Sakshi made him extremely happy.”

A few weeks ago, the news broke that Vinod was suffering from cancer and after that picture of his from the hospital, where he looked fragile and pale — a contrast to his brawny screen image we were used to — surfaced online, Mahesh’s brother Mukesh reached out to the actor’s family.

“Mukesh called his brother, who said that whenever he gets better, we will be informed and we could talk to him then. But that never happened and this morning I got the news. This was one funeral, I would have wanted to attend but I couldn’t because I was initially told by an insider that the family wanted a private funeral. It was quite late in the evening that I got to know the press was also invited. Otherwise, nothing could ever hold me back from attending his funeral,” the director said.

Also read | Why Vinod Khanna kept cancer a secret for many years

They couldn’t remain as close as they might have intended to, but Vinod’s demise ha left a vacuum in Mahesh’s life- both as a friend and as a cinema lover. “His death comes as a passing away of a very important person. He was a unique person. He lived bravely, did what his heart asked him to do. He was larger-than-life. He gracefully stepped back realising that the time had come that he would be offered a certain kind of roles. He did them, keeping in mind his on-screen personality. He was magnificent. They don’t make people like him anymore.”