Rajesh Khanna (Hindi: राजेश खन्ना; Punjabi: ਰਾਜੇਸ਼ ਖੰਨਾ) (born Jatin Khanna on December 29, 1942 in Amritsar) is an Indian Bollywood thespian and laureate of the Dada Saheb Phalke Legend Golden Actor Award, bestowed on him in 2008. He has also served a five year tenure as MP in the Indian parliament (1991-1996).


Khanna and Dimple Kapadia separated in the early 1980s. Their elder daughter Twinkle who is an interior decorator is married to superstar Akshay Kumar and younger daughter Rinkee is married to a entrepreneur, after attending Harvard in the USA.

Khanna was a Member of Parliament for the New Delhi constituency (1991-96).


However the success perhaps caused him to be complacent, often turning up very late for shoots and throwing tantrums as well as having a whole entourage of sycophants accompany him for his shoots.[3] This behaviour coupled with the changing trend from romantic and social movies to action oriented multi-star films in the late 1970s and 1980s caused the decline of Khanna's career to some extent in term of box office rating. But he continued to perform in quality commercial films, like, Mehbooba, Karm, Anurodh, Palkon Ki Chaon Mein, Amar Deep, Thodisi Bewafai, Avataar, Amrit, Akhir Kyon, Aaj Ka MLA, Shatru, Babu, Agar Tum Na Hote, Souten, Ghar Ka Chirag,Vijay, Swarg and many more. He was a protagonist as well as in innumerable guest roles in multi-starrer social/action films such as Kudrat, Rajput, Dharam Aur Kanoon, Dharam Kanta, Ashanti and Disco Dancer. He experimented with negative roles in Red Rose where he played a psychopathic serial killer of women and in Dhanwaan where he played an arrogant businessman. By the early 1990s he quit acting for many years and served as M.P. of New Delhi Constituency during 1991-1996. During that period, he appeared in Khudai (1994). He made his acting comeback in Aa Ab Laut Chalen (1999) and Kyaa Dil Ne Kahaa (2002) where he played elderly father roles. In 2006 he appeared in Jaana - Let's Fall in Love which was a direct to video release. In September, 2007 he has officially announced about his second innings on big screen and has signed about eight new forthcoming films.


He is the life member of International Film And Television Research Centre and International Film And Television Club Of Asian Academy Of Film & Television. Recently he announced his appearance in a spate of forthcoming films for which he is hopeful of renewing previous success. . He is going to perform in a T.V. Serial Bhabhima with Leena Ganguly as Lead Pair of the serial.


During 1991-1996, Rajesh Khanna was a Member of Parliament for the Congress Party, from the New Delhi constituency. He has since been a political activist for the Congress Party.