First of all Rajesh Khanna gained such super stardom that no other actor in our country has ever witnessed. This stardom lasted from 1969 till 1974.
To quote from the answer of Syed Ss
“Those days when rajesh khanna was giving huge and numerous hits consistently, almost all the theaters in all the cities/towns used to play only his films. This acted like the overdose for the movie goers, they started looking for someone other than the usual thing around them…..”
Like when you start to eat too many carrots then you would like to try other fruits/foods, they wanted to stop seeing Rajesh Khanna all the time.
So the first loss of Rajesh Khanna was his stardom.
But Rajesh still continued to have hits, he just was not on the top of his game anymore in terms of success rate.
Post 1974 Rajesh Khanna’s career:
If Red Rose, Amrit, Avataar displayed his acting skills then Maqsad (1984), Prem Kahani (1975), Chhailla Babu (1977) were box office hits continuing his stardom.
He was versatile too, as he couldn’t just do romance but also action like: Ittefaq (1969), Maha Chor (1976) etc.
For most of the 1980’s Rajesh was still the highest paid actor of India:
“was the highest paid Indian actor from 1970 to 1987”
- Highest paid actor: Regional actor Chiranjeevi put both Rajesh and Amitabh behind in terms of that. But still Rajesh’s achievement is legendary, to be the highest paid for 18 years straight, when Chiranjeevi and amitabh were not highest paid for even half as many years as rajesh was the highest paid.
- 8 hits in one year (1985):
- 15 hits in fifteen months (1 year and three months: "This run is only bettered by a run by Rajesh Khanna which lasted 15 months from October 69 till February 71 which consisted of 9 consecutive major hits including six blockbuster/super hit films." https://www.boxofficeindia.com/report-details.php?articleid=108
- Stardom: During 1973 americans called Rajesh "the biggest star of the biggest film industry in the world" they claimed "every film he touches turns to gold". He had several hits after 1973 as well. He’s the only actor in the world to have 15 solo hits continously in three years without a single flop. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvX6p2OoGP0
- Acting talent: He is a method actor, look at his character roles:
- Red Rose (1980)
- Ittefaq (1969)
- Avtaar (1983)
- Amrit (1986)
- Anand (1971)
- Namak Haraam (1973)
- Roti (1974)
- Do Raaste (1949)
- Daag: A Poem of Love (1973)
- Bewafai (1985)
- Rajput (1982)
Rajesh’s problem was that towards the end of the 1980’s he decided to stop trying and focusing on his cinematic career/work. In the 1990’s and 2000’s he was even more inactive.
