"He never acted in a Bengali film. But right from the late 1960s to the seventies he was the top star and he worked with the top directors of his era, most of whom were Bengalis," film historian S M M Ausaja told PTI here.
In Hrishikesh Mukherjee's 1971 film 'Anand', Khanna delivered some of Indian cinema's memorable dialogues.
The use of the word 'babu moshai' for Amitabh Bachchan, who played a Bengali doctor Bhaskar Banerjee in the film, is so deeply etched in the minds of Indians that it has almost become a synonym for Bengalis for the rest of the countrymen.
"In a dhoti and kurta, you showed the rest of India how truly elegant Bengal was. Without you the screen will be robbed of much of its silver," said National Award winning director Rituparno Ghosh.
The 1969 Hindi film 'Aradhana' which was Khanna's first superhit film had a strong Bengal connection.
It was directed by the Bengal-born Shakti Samanta with Bengali actress Sharmila Tagore starring opposite him, while the hit song 'Roop Tera Mastana', was sung by Kishore Kumar.
He kept on repeating his onscreen chemistry with not only Sharmila, Samanta and Kishore, but also soon built up successful alliances with stalwarts like Hrishikesh Mukherjee and R D Burman. (MORE)
