Legendary actor and politician Vinod Khanna passed away in 2017 after battling bladder cancer. Now, his second wife Kavita Khanna has shared some lesser-known details about his cancer journey, revealing that he was first diagnosed with lung cancer in 2001 due to his heavy smoking habit. She also disclosed that after being diagnosed with bladder cancer, he was strictly advised to give up alcohol.
Vinod Khanna’s battle with cancer
Vinod Khanna’s second wife, Kavita Khanna, looked back at her late husband’s battle with cancer in a video posted on her YouTube channel.
“It was 2001 when Vinod had a diagnosis of lung cancer. He’d gone for his annual checkup, and they saw patches in the lungs. He’d smoke 40 to 80 cigarettes a day. We went to the leading MRI specialists of Mumbai, and they all said it was lung cancer,” said Kavita, mentioning that the doctors told them they would have to remove half of his lung.
Kavita and Vinod Khanna chose to keep the diagnosis private and sought guidance from their spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar before proceeding with surgery. Recalling the time, she shared that “Gurudev,” as they fondly addressed him, advised them to first consult the head of oncology at AIIMS Delhi to check if the procedure could be delayed by a month or two while Vinod focused on breathwork. After receiving the doctor’s approval, Gurudev suggested that Vinod visit the ashram in Rishikesh and practise Sudarshan Kriya there three times a day.
“Later, we went to Germany. One evening, Vinod got this terrible pain somewhere around his shoulder. He was just lying in pain for two days. Then Gurudev came to see how he was, and then suggested we get an X-ray done. There was no broken rib, but the important thing was there’s no cancer. Unbelievable! We came back via London, they saw all the reports, and couldn’t accept there’s been a complete cure. They just thought reports got mixed up in India.. No lung cancer came back,” recalled Kavita.
Vinod was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2010, with Kavita mentioning, “The prognosis was if he did everything that allopathy had to offer, there was a 25% chance he’d be alive after two years. Vinod then called Gurudev and said, ‘I’ve lived a full life. And if my time to go has come, I’m ready to go. But I don’t want to torture my body.’ So, Gurudev asked him to come to the ashram and do the panchkarma. In two years from when he was first diagnosed, the cancer was gone. We did the scans in America, and it was gone”.
After that, Kavita said that their spiritual guru asked Vinod Khanna to quit drinking, revealing that the actor would consume one or two glasses of alcohol every evening. Kavita shared that “he was still in very good health when it started declining. He finally died of bladder cancer”.
About Vinod Khanna
In 2017, Vinod Khanna, known for his performances in films like Mere Apne and Qurbani, died at the age of 70. He was suffering from advanced bladder carcinoma and was being treated at the HN Reliance Foundation Hospital in Mumbai. Just before his death, a picture of a fragile-looking Vinod Khanna had gone viral on social media.
At the peak of his career in 1982, Vinod Khanna quit movies and joined spiritual leader Osho Rajneesh. In later years, he was seen in projects such as Wanted, Dabangg and Dilwale.
He was married to Geetanjali with whom he had two sons – Rahul Khanna and Akshaye Khanna. They got divorced in 1985. After five years, he got married to Kavita with whom he had two children: Sakshi and Shraddha.