Nation Mourns the Death of Superstar Rajesh Khanna

As the veteran actor Rajesh Khanna breathed his last at his iconic residence 'Aashirwad' in Mumbai on Wednesday afternoon, grief and surprise gripped the nation. As soon as the death of the 'first superstar of Hindi cinema' spread across the nation, condolences started coming in for the late actor from the film industry as well as the political arena.

Almost the entire eminent personalities from the film fraternity including Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Katrina Kaif, Khaiyyaam Saab, Mahesh Bhatt and others visited 'Aashirwad' to pay homage to the veteran actor.

Akshay Kumar, Rajesh Khanna's son-in-law had informed about the death by tweeting. He had tweeted: My father-in-law has gone to a very nice and heavenly place.

In her condolence message to Dimple Kapadia, wife of the superstar, President Pratibha Patil said that the film world has lost a "powerful actor and creative personality. She added, "I am saddened to learn about the passing away of Shri Rajesh Khanna. In his prime as an actor he was the heartthrob of the young generation of 1970s, who tried to model themselves on him and his style."

The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Congress president Sonia Gandhi have also expressed their deep sorrow on the demise of Bollywood`s first superstar Rajesh Khanna.

Apart from them nation's other political leaders such as Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ambika Soni, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, etc. have also paid rich tribute to the veteran actor.