The magic behind Rajesh Khanna's superstardom

People agree Rajesh Khanna was the first superstar of the Hindi film industry but opinions are varied as to why. Maybe it was the whole persona - the mannerisms, the soft romantic voice and the expressive eyes, or maybe it was the romantic roles he performed, and the melodious music he acted out.

What was behind Rajesh Khanna's magical persona? What was he really like, and what was the secret of his success?

His hands and palmistry can give us some insight into the question, and tell us about his inner nature and why Rajesh Khanna moved the hearts of millions of people, especially women, young and old. 

To put it simply,
Rajesh Khanna was loved because he loved. His hand shows that Khanna was brimming with love and passion from the inside. His hands show that at heart he was loving, generous, and also compassionate. 

Check out a photograph of his hand here.

The Mount of Venus on his hand is well developed, and his heartline is long and curved. The Mars mounts on Rajesh's hands are well developed as well and also the Jupiter, Moon and Mercury mounts. The thumb is long but the first phalange is normal in length. The Jupiter finger on his hand is long and high-set, the Saturn (middle) finger a little bent, and the fingertips are either rounded or conic. There is a slight gap between his headline and lifeline and the headline is sloping. The gap between his head and heart lines is a bit narrow. The palm was a little long, the fingers short and the thumb likely a little low-set.

His hand shows love and warmth for people. A healthy sex drive is also shown and he had a strong sense of self...a kind of self-importance or maybe it can be called high self-esteem. This confidence and possibly flamboyance made him an attractive personality. No doubt his sexual energy was high and he loved people of the opposite sex, and he was the kind who would go out of his way to get what he wanted. 

Perhaps this explains why beautiful women were attracted to Rajesh in his personal life. Not only did he genuinely love women, it was not just sexual. This love was emotional as much as it was sensual and he had a way to express this love. Being able to give expression to his feelings and being demonstrative of his passion, would have added to his charm. 

His imagination and strong emotions must have helped his histrionic ability. He was bold and dramatic as he was confident. And it was probably a gentle love, not the rough, crude variety, despite the high sex drive. 

Strong sexuality adds to “charisma” and in Rajesh Khanna’s case gives us a clue as to what made him a “phenomenon.” But raw sexuality without sympathy and love is plain old lust. As mentioned earlier, Rajesh had the right love formulae going for him. He could express an understated, yet intense love with his body and eyes. The reason he got it right was because of who he was in real life. Compassion and sympathy are all too evident in Rajesh Khanna's hand. People can sense a genuinely sympathetic nature. This temperament made it easier for Rajesh to feel and act. 

Yet, Rajesh Khanna led a lonely and sad life in later years. In a sense, one is reminded of Elvis Presley. The details may be different but both men were love/sex symbols of their day, both peaked early in their careers, and were unable to match earlier successes. Both men married beautiful women, and both fell in love with women much younger than them. Elvis with 14-year-old Priscilla and Rajesh with 16-year-old Dimple. Both men were abandoned by their wives.

What went wrong? 
When it comes to Rajesh Khanna, several personality characteristics led to his downfall. One of them was his dark imagination. It is the dark and moody side that some creative people possess – a kind of moodiness and cynicism. This quality by itself is not necessarily harmful and can, in fact, help an artiste if he can handle it. But there was also his penchant for being self-absorbed. That could put off anyone in a long-term relationship with him.

Everyone talks of Rajesh Khanna's ego and ego is present alright, although his other qualities could soften it. Rajesh had a strong, perhaps inflated sense of the self, perhaps it was more akin to narcissism, a word I am using here in a non-clinical sense. Rajesh was born with this characteristic. This gives the owner a childlike conviction in his own importance. It is pure self-love and people with this quality are often drawn into public life, either into politics or acting. It is a quality that can actually help an actor in his work because he enjoys being seen and watched. 

People have said that RK or Kakaji as he was popularly known was a shy man. There is evidence of slight introversion in his early years but by the age of 30 or so,  it was almost gone. Rajesh’s hands show his idealism, and worse, difficulty in seeing another’s point of view; he was a man pretty much difficult to persuade.  

Taken singly, none of the negative qualities makes him a tragic hero. But in combination, they can shake the balance of personality, especially when some of them are present in an intense way, like the ego and the head-in-the-sand attitude.  Despite this, a person can find a balance if he is an objective thinker. With pragmatism, good judgment and common sense, RK could have survived long-term. But in Rajesh Khanna's case, the heart was more dominant and thus life can become a roller coaster ride. 

Read more about veteran actors from the Hindi film industry like Amitabh Bachchan, Rekha, or the singer/actor Kishore Kumar. 

Or check out the personalities of actors like Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Aishwarya Rai, Rani Mukerji, Shah Rukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Shahid Kapoor, and many more! There is also a personality reading of megastar, Rajnikanth and the Telugu film star Prabhas.

Read about the actors of today: Ranbir Kapoor, Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone, Akshay Kumar, Priyanka Chopra, Kareena Kapoor, Kangana Ranaut or Kartik Aaryan!

Or check out the personality readings of actors on this website, from Bollywood and also from Hollywood.

(The photo published on this post is a free photo by Bollywood Hungama [CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)]