Vinod Khanna (6 October 1946 – 27 April 2017) was an Indian actor and producer of Bollywood films. He was the recipient of two Filmfare awards. He was also an active politician and was the MP from the Gurdaspur constituency between 1998–2009 and 2014–2017. In July 2002, Khanna became the minister for Culture and Tourism in the Atal Behari Vajpayee cabinet. Six months later, he became the Minister of State for external affairs.
Khanna played lead roles in many films and is best remembered for his performances in Mere Apne, Kuchhe Dhaage, Gaddaar, Imtihaan, Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, Amar Akbar Anthony, Rajput, The Burning Train, Qurbani, Kudrat, Parvarish, Khoon Pasina, Dayavan, Chandni and Jurm.
After making his debut in 1968, Khanna first acted in supporting and antagonistic roles; as an angry young man in the movie Mere Apne, as the main villain in the super-hit movie Mera Gaon Mera Desh, and as the military officer turned fugitive in the critically acclaimed movie Achanak.
In 1982, at the peak of his film career, Khanna temporarily quit the film industry to follow his spiritual guru Osho Rajneesh. After a gap of 5 years, he returned to the Hindi film industry with two hit films; Insaaf and Satyamev Jayate. Khanna was one of few Hindi actors who began by playing villains and moved on to play the hero. He got his first movie as a hero in 1971 in the movie Hum Tum Aur Woh opposite Bharathi Vishnuvardhan.
Khanna was hospitalized at the Sir H.N. Reliance Foundation Hospital and Research Center in Girgaon, Mumbai on 2 April 2017 for a few weeks after suffering from severe dehydration. He died at 11:20 a.m. (IST) on 27 April, and it was revealed that he had been battling advanced bladder cancer. Although the news about his deteriorating health started to spread in early 2017, his family declined to disclose any information. He was cremated at the Worli Crematorium on the same day.