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Rajesh Khanna is considered as the first superstar of Bollywood. Even before him, there were great and highly successful actors like Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Shammi Kapoor, Rajendra Kumar, and many others. However, the term superstar was first attached to Rajesh Khanna. For years together many believed that the term got organically stuck with Kaka as he was favouritely called among his circle in Bollywood.
A throwback interview of one of the famous publicists or agents of the 70s who seemed to have handled Rajesh Khanna ’s publicity in those days has revealed how it was all a curated thing.
Publicity agent shared how Rajesh Khanna became famous as a superstar
Recently when an old video of veteran publicity agent Tarak Nath Gandhi hit the web, Bollywood fans were surprised to know how PR strategy was used with full planning to ensure that Rajesh Khanna became famous as a superstar.
In the interview, Gandhi said, “Har news ke baad, jab hum news bhejte the saath saath Rajesh Khanna ke age hum superstar Rajesh Khanna likhte the. Toh usme bahot se journalistoon ko taklifh hoti thi. Toh woh bole hum kyun likhe bhai superstar Rajesh Khanna? Toh unko samjhana padta tha kabhi kabhi jab prem se baat karte the, kabi samjhakar baat karte the.”
“Kabhi dinner par le jate the, kabhi present dete the. Iss tarike se hamara kam age badhta gaya. Aur iss tarike se iska title hum establish karte gaye. Aur ek cheez jab bar bar establish hoti hai aur kaha jata hai toh woh baat sahi nikalti hai,” Gandhi added.
How Rajesh Khanna got the ‘First Superstar’ tag - the untold story!
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Many social media users were surprised by this revelation and astonished at how even in those days PR existed. What’s more, Rajesh Khanna and his team were smart enough to bribe and please the journalist to establish his name as a superstar in Bollywood.
Over the years many other actors achieved similar or even higher levels of success including Amitabh Bachchan , Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, and others, and today most of the successful Indian actors are called superstars.
