When Rajesh Khanna was welcomed on stage with bombardment of eggs & banana peels

Rajesh Khanna is not just a name; rather, he is remembered as an icon. After tasting consecutive failures, he emerged as a successful actor with 15 successful movies in a row. This gave the country the first superstar of the Hindi movie industry. 

The 1970s to 80s was the era of ‘Kaka’ with a massive following. With Aradhana, Kaka created a storm and swept everyone aside for the next few years. Probably no other actor has ever seen the craze that Kaka enjoyed as one of the biggest actors. 

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Kaka swayed movie lovers with his charm and he was looked upon as an ‘epitome of romance’. From girls following his car chanting his name and leaving lipstick marks on it to aggressive wrist-slitting, there are several such crazy tales backing his rich legacy. 

But, did you know, those super crazy fans who worshipped him, once pelted eggs and banana peels at him?

Yes, though it is hard to believe, it is true. However, such a thing happened much before he was the Rajesh Khanna and much before he started enjoying great stardom. 

Needless to say, Rajesh Khanna’s real name was Jatin Khanna. And before he made his debut in the Hindi cine industry, he was fond of doing plays in theatres. He gave high efforts for rehearsals of the plays. Back then, he was almost finalised to work with popular actress Geeta Bali, however, for some unknown reason, it couldn’t happen. This hurt Jatin deeply, but, he kept himself busy in rehearsals. 

In an inter-college competition, Jatin was to play an important character in a drama. 

A close friend of Jatin aka Rajesh once revealed, on the day on which the drama was to be staged, Jatin had an ugly spat with his opposite group. The opposite group planned to spoil his (Jatin) drama. Everything was set and the drama was staged. However, when Jatin entered the stage, banana peels and eggs were pelted on him. 

This incident instantly broke him and he started crying. Even, plays of both groups were cancelled. Jatin went backstage and started crying inconsolably. While weeping, he went on repeating that he had given high efforts for this drama and it was spoiled. He also went on to say, even after giving efforts, why people spoil his works. 

“My dreams will remain unfulfilled,” said Jatin, a close friend quoted him as saying. 

However, his friends tried to console him and took him out to change his mood.

Back then, none of the fellows of the opposite group could have thought, Jatin would emerge as the first superstar and enjoy huge stardom for decades.