At the peak of his career, Vinod Khanna left the film industry and joined spiritual leader Osho Rajneesh in the US in the '80s. (Express archive photos)
It is well documented that late actor Vinod Khanna left his career at its peak and his family, wife and two sons, to follow spiritual leader Osho and become a sanyasi. But what many don’t know is that Khanna wasn’t the first Bollywood celebrity to follow the spiritual guru — it was filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt. It was Bhatt who had introduced Khanna to Osho. However, Bhatt soon snapped out of his fascination with the spiritual leader. This, however, led to Khanna, who was still following Osho, bringing the spiritual leader’s threatening message to Bhatt.
In an old interaction on Arbaaz Khan’s chat show, Bhatt spoke about his relationship with Rajneesh. “I was a normal guy. I made films such as Vishwasghaat and Manzilien Aur Bhi Hain that flopped. So, I was into the spiritual supermarket; I went to Osho Rajneesh, who was a charismatic guru from Pune. I went to him and devoted myself to him… ochre robes and meditation five times a day,” Bhatt said.
Admitting that he introduced Khanna to Osho, he said, “I took Vinod Khanna to Osho Rajneesh. While I broke the (connection), he continued. I broke the mala and threw it down the commode. I thought that I still feel envious but I am saying holy words… I feel like a hypocrite. I can’t lie to the world and myself.”
Osho wasn’t happy with Bhatt’s betrayal and he sent his message through Khanna. “Vinod called me from Filmistan and said Bhagwan is very angry. You broke the mala and threw it in the commode. I said ‘yes, I have done that. This is worthless; I am a damn fool.’ He said Bhagwan has said ask Mahesh to come back and hand over the mala in person, otherwise he said’, and Vinod lowered his voice, ‘he will destroy you’.”
Osho called Bhatt a ‘mouse’, blamed his exit on his partner
In his book The 99 Names of Nothingness, Osho wrote about his fallout with Bhatt. “I knew that this was going to happen. I knew, because there were only two alternatives: either his girlfriend was going to become a sannyasin or he was going to become a non-sannyasin… and he was defeated by her,” he wrote.
Calling Bhatt a ‘mouse’ for getting influenced by his girlfriend, Osho wrote, “I call it a tragedy, because once that power is destroyed she will no more be interested in the man. This is the dilemma: she is interested in power, then the power feels frightening. If the man remains so powerful then she will remain dependent; she will never be the whole – and soon she starts playing feminine tricks. And because he loves her, the man goes on yielding… Once he starts yielding, the lion disappears and the mouse is born, and no woman is interested in a mouse, no woman at all. Once she has reduced the man to a mouse, she is finished, and as I can see, that is what has happened.”
Vinod Khanna took a hiatus from the film industry for five years.
Vinod Khanna returned from Oregon broken: Mahesh Bhatt
While Bhatt made his distance from Osho, Khanna followed him to his ashram in Oregon, USA. However, after the collapse of Osho and the ashram, Khanna returned to Mumbai. Bhatt told Subhash K Jha how he found Khanna ‘broken’ upon his return. “When I turned away, he stayed—and then disappeared to Oregon. I even flew to America once, to try and bring him back. But he was too far gone. When the Rajneesh dream collapsed, he returned—broken. I met him again in a small flat opposite Jaslok Hospital,” he said.
He added, “We drank that evening till we were smashed. But he spoke little. The old fire was gone. He tried to find his footing in the movie world again, but the dizzying heights he had once scaled remained just beyond reach. He drifted into politics; I stayed with my stories.”
After his return to movies, Khanna starred in successful films like Insaaf and Satyamev Jayate (1987). He later appeared in character roles in films like Chandni, Dayavan, and later Dabangg, but he never resumed the stardom that he had experienced before he started following Osho. He also served as a Member of Parliament. He passed away in 2003.
Curated by Shiv Shakti Mishra
