Vinod Khanna passes away

Actor Vinod Khanna dies at 70 from cancer

One of India's most well-known Bollywood actors Vinod Khanna has died aged 70, his hospital has confirmed.

Khanna, also an active politician, had been suffering from cancer and was admitted to hospital earlier this month as his illness became more serious.

He acted in more than 100 Bollywood films and was widely seen as a counterfoil to the "angry young man" played by Amitabh Bachchan.
He was elected to parliament four times and was once a junior foreign minister.

Vinod Khanna (6 October 1946 – 28 April 2017) was an Indian actor and producer of Bollywood films. He was the recipient of 2 Filmfare awards. He was also an active politician. He was the sitting MP from Gurdaspur (between 1968 and 2013). He died on 27 April 2017 after battling with cancer.

Vinod Khanna acted in lead roles in many superhit films and is best remembered for his performance in films like Mere Apne, Mera Gaon Mera Desh, Gaddaar (1973 film), Jail Yatra, Imtihaan, Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, Inkaar, Kachhe Dhaage, Amar Akbar Anthony, Rajput, Qurbani, Kudrat, Dayavan, Kaarnama,Suryaa: An Awakening and Jurm.

After making his debut in 1968, Khanna first acted in small second lead roles or negative roles. His angry young man role in the superhit movie Mere Apne, his negative role as the main villain in the superhit movie, Mera Gaon Mera Desh and his role in the crtically acclaimed movie Achanak as the military officer turned fugitive received tremendous applause from both- the film industry and his fans.

In 1982, at the peak of his film career, Khanna temporarily quit the film industry to follow his spiritual guru Osho Rajneesh.After a 5 year hiatus, he returned to the Hindi film industry giving two back to back hit films Insaaf and Satyamev Jayate.

Indian President Pranab Mukherjee led tributes from politicians while many Bollywood celebrities.