Rajesh Khanna was the first ‘superstar’, a phenomenon in the real sense of the term. A winner of the Filmfare-United Producers talent hunt, he gave no indication of the shape of the stardom he would achieve, in his early films. His debut film Chetan Anand’s Aakhri Khat (1966) was a damp squib. So were Nasir Hussain’s Baharon Ke Sapne (1967) and G. P Sippy’s Raaz (1967), but Shakti Samanta’s Aradhana (1969) skyrocketed him to overnight stardom. There was no stopping him after that. Aradhana was followed by blockbusters like Do Raaste (1969), Bandhan (1969) and Ittefaq (1969). His mind boggling success redefined the concept of stardom in Hindi Cinema and rewrote the very pattern of film- making. He might have acquired the sobriquet of ‘superstar’ through a well-orchestrated publicity blitz, but he sustained it with great élan, singing and cooing straight into the hearts of the audience in a series of films that played up his irresistible guy-next door charm. At the pinnacle of his career, Kaka, as he was affectionately called in the industry, had huge crowds, predominantly female, thronging his bungalow on Mumbai’s carter Road every morning to catch a glimpse of him driving out to work Capri/Lotus. Girls wrote crazy love letters to him in blood! Mothers brought their ailing infants to be touched by Khanna. The Rajesh Mania was a phenomenon with no parallel in the history of Hindi cinema. His contempt for professionalism led to his premature decline, and paved the way for another phenomenon called Amitabh Bachchan.