When Rajesh Khanna’s characters met with tragic endings

Aradhana became the film that catapulted Rajesh Khanna to stardom. With a hit soundtrack by SD Burman, Shakti Shamanta’s romantic drama made a winning pair out of Khanna and Sharmila Tagore. Both took risks in their role, Khanna playing father and son and Tagore ageing in the film to play an old woman. The death of Khanna's older character, Flight Lieutenant Arun, in a plane crash dramatically changes the lives of those he leaves behind.

In Asit Sen’s Safar, Rajesh Khanna first played a terminally ill patient. As Avinash, a painter and poet suffering from cancer, he watches the woman he loves (played by Sharmila Tagore) marry another. Dr Neela finds herself in a complicated love triangle with a suspicious husband and a friend for whom time is running out. In Sen’s film, Avinash’s death gives Dr Neela the purpose to carry on and help people as a doctor.

Rajesh Khanna’s iconic role as Anand Sehgal further solidified his superstar status. In Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s tearjerker, co-star Amitabh Bachchan played his good friend and physician Dr Bhaskar Banerjee who tries in vain to cure Anand. Khanna’s cheerful performance and his unforgettable dialogues (‘Zindagi badi honi chahiye, lambi nahin’, meaning 'Life should be large, not long') have endured over the years.

After Anand, Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan were reunited in Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Namak Haraam. They played best friends, Somu and Vicky, from opposite ends of the social spectrum. The two grow apart as each gets comfortable in his role of union leader and business owner, respectively. The divide is bridged by tragedy after a premeditated accident ordered by Vicky’s father.

In Roti, Rajesh Khanna is a criminal, Mangal, on the run from the law in northern India where he is eventually tracked down. While on the lam, he tries to reform his ways and becomes a teacher. He falls in love with a local, Bijli (Mumtaz). Mangal and Bijli find their unfortunate end at the hands of the police. Before he dies, Mangal gives a sermon on the reason why the poor turn to crime.