3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
Vinod Khanna would get bored of Osho's ashram and gossip about it with Kabir Bedi, was broke when he return to India: ‘He started afresh from a one-room flat'
Kabir Bedi and Vinod Khanna shared more than just a professional rapport, they shared a deep mutual respect, a spiritual curiosity, and a warm personal bond. In a recent interview with Filmfare, Kabir opened up about their friendship, rooted in their common admiration for the spiritual teacher Osho, whom Vinod followed with great devotion. 'Vinod had a very philosophical bent,' Kabir recalled. 'He was very interested in Osho, became one of Osho's great devotees. Definitely, I had enormous respect for Osho. I just didn't go and see him, which I regret deeply, because people were expected to wear a certain colour and something when they went to see him. I said, 'Nobody's going to tell me what to wear.' It was an ego thing, and I regret it, because I would have met one of the greatest minds and philosophers.'
Kabir described how, despite never having visited Osho himself, he was deeply influenced by the guru's teachings. 'I read his books, I heard his tapes,' he said. 'And when Osho was driven out of India, literally, by Morarji Desai at the time, and he came to America, he went to a place, a state called Oregon, and he set up his ashram out there… Vinod left India and went with him. He gave up his entire career in Bollywood.' Vinod's spiritual commitment led him to walk away from a flourishing film career at its peak. But his bond with Kabir endured even during this unconventional chapter of his life.
'When he got a little bored or tired of the ashram, he would come down to me in Los Angeles, and we'd spend some wonderful times together,' Kabir reminisced. 'And I knew all the gossip that was going on at the thing. In fact, there's a documentary called Wild Wild Country, which is on Netflix, which talks about that phase of Osho's life, which is very interesting. But it really doesn't give you a sense of who Osho was and what he meant as a teacher and as a philosopher. It was very unfair to him in that sense. But certainly, many of the bad things that happened at that ashram as a result of some of his followers were true. And I knew all about it because Vinod had told me what was happening. In fact, he [Osho] was a great builder, a great creator, a great philosopher, a great man.'
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Reflecting more deeply on Vinod as a person, Kabir painted the portrait of a deeply introspective and emotionally rich individual. 'A very thoughtful person,' he said. 'He didn't talk too much. He thought a lot. But a man who felt a lot. He was a man of his heart. And he just related to you on a heart level. So if he liked you, he liked you, and he would do anything for you.' Kabir also recalled how Vinod described the profound spiritual experiences he had during meditation: 'And when you asked him to describe the experiences that he had with your shots, he said, 'I can't, Kabir, I can't. Something just takes over. It takes me to another level. It makes me feel divine. I cannot talk about this. I can't explain what happens.' So he wasn't a very verbal person, but a very feeling person.'
In later years, Kabir said their interactions were mostly limited to social events. But his admiration for Vinod only grew stronger with time, particularly after witnessing the resilience with which he restarted his life post-Osho. 'I really had great admiration for Vinod,' he said, 'Because I know when he came back from the Osho ashram, he had no money, and he really started his career all afresh—from a single one-room, one-bedroom flat in Bombay. He restarted his life, and he went on to buy one of the biggest flats on Malabar Hill and marry a wonderful girl. He didn't let his professional ambitions get in the way of his philosophical quest. And he followed his guru, giving up everything. And when his guru finally started his journey around the world, Vinod came back and started from scratch. And… yeah, he still always swore by Osho. And I have the greatest of respect for him.'
Vinod's association with Osho was well documented, he famously left the film industry in the early 1980s to join the spiritual commune in Oregon, a decision that shocked Bollywood. But he later returned to acting, successfully rebuilding his career. Kabir and Vinod also shared screen space in several films, including The Burning Train, Farz Aur Kanoon, and Kshatriya, among others.
