Legendary actor Vinod Khanna passed away today at the age of 70. He was suffering from bladder cancer and had been hospitalized for sometime but his health escalated before he succumbed on Thursday morning. Vinod Khanna was one of the biggest heroes ever of the Hindi film industry who made his first appearance in 1969 with Man Ka Meet. This film was produced by the leading male star of the time Sunil Dutt as a launch vehicle for his brother Som Dutt. The film proved a success but it was Vinod Khanna who was noticed rather than Som Dutt. Thereafter followed supporting roles in huge blockbuster films like Sacha Jhuta, Aan Milo Sajna and Purab Aur Pashim.

Then came the shift to villain with Mera Gaon Mera Desh (1971) which was a prelude of sorts to Sholay and Vinod Khanna played the dreaded dacait Jabbar Singh to perfection. The film went on to become of the biggest blockbusters of Hindi cinema. The tuning point in his career was a Haath Ki Safai (1974) which was a big hit and made Vinod Khanna a saleable hero. There was no looking back after that with many hits which culminated in Qurbani (1980). This film was a huge craze and took such an initial which could be said to be the biggest ever in real value but Vinod Khanna was not there to bask in the glory of the film as he had announced to leave the industry in late 1978 to live life in an Ashram in the States. 

He made a comeback in 1987 with Insaaf and was well accepted by the industry and fans again as Suryaa (1989) and Chandni (1989) proved to be big hits. Recently he was seen in character roles in popular films like Wanted (2009), Dabangg (2010), Dabangg 2 (2012) and Dilwale (2015).

Vinod Khanna was in that group of actors who have a big in hand of making Hindi fillms popular across the nation and eventually becoming a multi crore industry that it is today.