Why Vinod Khanna Left Bollywood For Osho Ashram And What His Wife Said

Vinod Khanna confirmed his exit from Bollywood by calling a press conference, where he announced that he was leaving films to pursue a spiritual life

27 Apr 2026, 05:23 · NDTV

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Vinod Khanna left Bollywood in 1982 to follow a spiritual path with Osho in Oregon
His wife Kavita said his spiritual interest began early, influenced by personal family losses
After a five-year break, Khanna returned to films in 1987 and later earned praise for his roles

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Vinod Khanna made an exit from Bollywood at the height of his career in 1982 to follow a spiritual path, a decision that stunned the film industry. At the time, he was one of Hindi cinema's biggest stars, known for a string of hit films and a massive fan following. Khanna left films to join spiritual leader Osho's ashram in Rajneeshpuram, Oregon, where he devoted himself to meditation and a disciplined life. His sudden exit shocked audiences, deeply affected his family, and changed the direction of his career.

What Vinod Khanna Said About His Decision

Khanna remained firm in his decision. He publicly confirmed his exit from Bollywood by calling a press conference, where he announced that he was leaving films to pursue a spiritual life. He made it clear that he was fully committed to this path. In a later interview with Simi Garewal, Khanna described the decision as selfish but said it was essential for his inner growth, while acknowledging the personal cost involved.

"It is! Unless you're selfish, you can't do anything like this. Because it's your own being that has to find that transcendence. Everybody has to travel alone. You come alone, you go alone. You have to travel your path."

"I was very much in touch with my family. It's not that I ran away. I was providing everything."

Explaining why he made the choice, he said in the same interview, "My own mind. My mind was thinking too much. I was too hyper. My thoughts were all over the place. I was very angry. I'd reached a saturation point. People can press your buttons and make you react. Everything is not under your control. But I would see that when I meditate, these things weren't affecting me at all. You have to become the master of your own mind, and these were the things that drove me to say that I've had enough, I've made enough money... Now, if I want to go deeper into meditation, I have to give my full time to it. I have to live in an ashram, I have to live at the feet of my guru. So, obviously, there was a need within me."

Akshaye Khanna's Thoughts

In a separate interview with Simi Garewal, Vinod Khanna's son, Akshaye Khanna, spoke about whether he understood what was happening at the age of five.

"No, I don't think one can understand at that age. But we had a fair understanding of what the logistics of things were. I don't remember it ever being explained to me, actually. It was just the way it was. I don't think anybody explained it to me. I can't remember. I'm sure someone must have. But I can't remember... You can't understand these things at that age... Everybody has their own way of dealing with things, and it's only now that one truly understands... I certainly don't think that it was a bad thing or a wrong thing. When a relationship doesn't serve the people who are involved, I don't think there's any reason to continue it, especially if the excuse is for someone else."

Echoing his father's view on being "selfish", Akshaye added, "I'm a great believer in being self-centred, being selfish. Unless you're happy, you can't make other people happy. The longer you continue to pretend to live a lie, you start resenting the other person and you start resenting yourself. I think everybody should live for themselves. It takes guts to live for yourself. Very few people can really do it."

Vinod Khanna's Second Wife, Kavita's Take On Actor's Spiritual Journey

Khanna's second wife, Kavita, said his interest in spirituality began much earlier than widely known. Speaking to Loveena Tandon, she said, "He was always spiritually inclined. When he was 17 years old, he picked up Autobiography of a Yogi from Strand Bookstore in Bombay, an iconic bookstore, and didn't put the book down until he finished it. He stayed up all night reading it."

She added, "Whenever J Krishnamurti was in town, if he happened to be shooting, he would take the day off and go attend the lectures."

Kavita said, "I think he started listening to Osho's discourses as they went through a terrible period in their lives, with five deaths in the family, including people who were particularly close to him, like his mother."

"When his mother died, he went to the ashram and took sanyas. That's how that journey began."

She also revealed that Khanna continued working while living in the ashram. "Most people don't know that for three years, while completing the films he had already signed, which included super hits like Hera Pheri and Qurbani, where he looked his absolute best, he would come and shoot."

Kavita said Khanna lived an extremely simple life during this period. "If the shoot was on location, he'd be there, but his base was Pune. He had a room in the ashram that was just four feet by six feet." She added that even Osho joked about the space. "The room was so small that he had to step over the bed and sleep diagonally because there was barely any space."

She said Khanna balanced films and spirituality simultaneously. "In front of the camera, he was doing films; off camera, he was meditating. He was Osho's gardener in the ashram. Then he went to Oregon."

Explaining why Khanna eventually stepped away from the ashram, Kavita said he felt spiritually fulfilled. "I think he found what he was looking for. He didn't feel the need to be in an ashram anymore," she said.

She summed up his philosophy by saying, "When you're on a spiritual path, the idea isn't to keep doing the same thing endlessly. You achieve a certain sense of peace. An inner evolution happens. And then the idea is to be a Buddha in the marketplace. To me, that's the pinnacle of a spiritual journey. If you can be a Buddha in the marketplace, with everything happening around you, and still remain centered, then that's really the thing."

What Kabir Bedi Said

Kabir Bedi also spoke about his close friendship with Khanna and their shared respect for Osho. He told Filmfare, "Vinod had a very philosophical bent. 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."

Bedi added, "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. 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."

Tentatively, after a 5-year break, Vinod Khanna returned to the film industry in 1987 with Insaaf and went on to deliver several successful films. He scored major hits with Suryaa and Chandni in 1989. In the later phase of his career, Khanna earned widespread praise for playing strong fatherly roles in blockbuster films such as Wanted (2009), Dabangg (2010), Dabangg 2 (2012), and Dilwale (2015).

Also Read: Before Bladder Cancer, Vinod Khanna Survived A Lung Cancer Diagnosis, Says Wife

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