Did you know? BFFs Vinod Khanna and Feroz Khan passed away eight years apart of the same disease and on the same date 

This is a sheer coincidence that late legendary actors and best friends Vinod Khanna and Feroz Khan died on the same date, eight years apart and not just this, the two Hindi film industry legends were almost of the same age at the time of their demise and suffered from the same disease which is cancer.

Not just onscreen, Vinod Khanna and Feroz Khan have shared a wonderful bond of friendship offscreen as well. They both had played friends onscreen in one of their biggest hits, Qurbani (1980) and then the duo came together for Dayavan (1988), a remake of Mani Ratnam’s cult Tamil classic, Nayakan. But their friendship preceded these movies they starred in. The two hit it off as buddies in their first hit, Shankar Shambhu directed by Chand in 1976. Such was their unique bond that while Feroz passed away on April 27, 2009, Vinod left for his heavenly abode on the same day exactly eight years later, in 2017. While Feroz Khan died of lung cancer, Vinod Khanna lost the battle to bladder cancer.

Feroz wanted to cast Vinod in the 1986 film titled ‘Janbaaz’, for the role that was eventually played by Anil Kapoor. But by that time Vinod had become disenchanted by the ways of the glamour industry and had decided to leave it all behind to find peace in the company of his spiritual guru, Osho Rajneesh, who had relocated to Oregon in the US.
For the unversed, Vinod left the industry at the peak of his career when he was the second most popular actor after Amitabh Bachchan and turned into a gardener. In one of his interviews back in the day, Vinod had said that he was happy “to let the world go by”.

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Eventually Vinod came back to India and resumed his second innings in the film industry. And Feroz was among the first lot of producers who welcomed him back signed him on for ‘Dayavan’. However, as we all know, Mukul Anand’s Insaaf (1986) and Raaj N Sippy’s Satyamev Jayate (1986) were the first two of his comeback films.
Incidentally, Feroz had first offered Vinod’s role in Qurbani to Amitabh Bachchan but the superstar had no dates at that time. And Feroz did not want to wait for six months to cast Bachchan. Subsequently, he signed Vinod for the film that story of which revolved around the theme of friendship and sacrifice. This film came as a turning point in their life and friendship and marked their bond as brothers and friends for life. The duo stayed life-long friends till Feroz died of lung cancer.

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