Rahul Khanna (born 20 June 1972) is an Indian actor, VJ, model and writer who works in

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". The in ...

. He is the eldest son of actor

Vinod Khanna Vinod Khanna (6 October 1946 – 27 April 2017) was an Indian actor, film producer, and politician known for his work in Hindi cinema. He is regarded as one of the greatest actors of Hindi cinema. Recognised as a style and fashion icon, he wa ...

and the elder brother of Akshaye Khanna.

Early life and background

Khanna was born and raised in

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

. His father was a Bollywood star & a politician,

, his mother was ex-model Gitanjali Taleyar Khanna, and his younger brother is Bollywood actor, Akshaye Khanna. Khanna studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute and the

School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by Silas ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

Career

Film

He made his feature film debut in

Deepa Mehta Deepa Mehta, (; born 15 September 1950) is an Indian-born Canadian film director and screenwriter, best known for her Elements Trilogy, Fire (1996 film), ''Fire'' (1996), ''Earth (1998 film), Earth'' (1998), and ''Water (2005 film), Water'' (2 ...

's '' 1947 Earth'' (1999), alongside

Aamir Khan Mohammed Aamir Hussain Khan (; born 14 March 1965) is an Indian actor, filmmaker, and television personality who works in Bollywood, Hindi films. Referred to as "Mr. Perfectionist" in the media, he is known for his work in a variety of film g ...

. His performance earned him several awards including the Filmfare Best Male Debut Award. He has since appeared in Mehta's '' Bollywood/Hollywood'' (2003) and ''

Wake up Sid ''Wake Up Sid'' is a 2009 Indian Hindi-language Coming-of-age story, coming-of-age Comedy drama, comedy-drama film written and directed by Ayan Mukerji in his directorial debut, and produced by Karan Johar under the Dharma Productions banner. T ...

'' starring

Ranbir Kapoor Ranbir Kapoor (; born 28 September 1982) is an Indian actor known for his work in Hindi-language films. He is one of the highest-paid actors of Hindi cinema and has featured in ''Forbes India'' Celebrity 100 list since 2012. Kapoor is the re ...

and Konkana Sen Sharma. Khanna's mainstream

films include '' Elaan'' and '' Raqeeb'' and his international credits include ''

The Emperor's Club ''The Emperor's Club'' is a 2002 American drama film directed by Michael Hoffman and starring Kevin Kline. Based on Ethan Canin's 1994 short story "The Palace Thief", the film follows a prep school teacher and his students at a fictional Eas ...

'' with

Kevin Kline Kevin Delaney Kline (born October 24, 1947) is an American actor. In a career spanning over five decades, he has become a prominent leading man across both Kevin Kline on screen and stage, stage and screen. List of awards and nominations recei ...

Television

MTV Asia MTV was a pan-Asian music pay television channel that was launched on 5 May 1995 as a standalone pay television service. The channel was owned by Paramount Networks EMEAA. History Pre-launch The first incarnation of MTV Asia was launched on ...

'', VJ, 1994–1998 ''Asian Variety Show'', Host, ''AVS TV Network'', North America, 1999–2001 ''Discovery Week'', Host,

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel, known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery, is an American cable channel that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...

, 2006 Khanna has also hosted numerous events like the IIFA Awards, the Miss India pageant, the

Screen Awards The Screen Awards was an annual awards ceremony held in India, honouring professional excellence in Bollywood. The nomination and award selection was done by a panel of distinguished professionals from the industry. The awards were introduced ...

, the Stardust (magazine) Awards, the Miss India Worldwide pageant,

Naomi Campbell Naomi Elaine Campbell (born 22 May 1970) is a British supermodel. Beginning her career at the age of eight, Campbell was one of six models of her generation declared supermodels by the fashion industry and the international press. She was th ...

's Fashion for Relief show at Mumbai Fashion Week, the GQ (India) Men of the Year Awards 2009 & 2010, Teacher's Achievement Awards 2008 & 2010, The

International Film Festival of India The International Film Festival of India (IFFI), founded in 1952, is an annual film festival currently held in Goa, on the western coast of India. The festival aims at providing a common platform for the cinemas of the world to project the excel ...

2011, The Hello (magazine) Hall of Fame Awards 2011 and The Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards 2012.

Commercials and endorsements

Khanna has been associated with several brands including

Toyota is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on August 28, 1937. Toyota is the List of manuf ...

Lay's Lay's (, ) is a brand of potato chips with different flavors, as well as the name of the company that founded the chip brand in the United States. The brand is also referred to as Frito-Lay, as both Lay's and Fritos are brands sold by the ...

Chips,

Pepsi Pepsi is a Carbonated water, carbonated soft drink with a cola flavor, manufactured by PepsiCo which serves as its flagship product. In 2023, Pepsi was the second most valuable soft drink brand worldwide behind Coca-Cola; the two share a long ...

, DTC (

Diamond Trading Company The Diamond Trading Company (DTC) is the rough diamond sales and distribution arm of the De Beers Group. The DTC sorts, values and sells about 35% of the world’s rough diamonds by value. The DTC has a combination of wholly owned and joint vent ...

De Beers The De Beers Group is a South African–British corporation that specializes in the diamond industry, including mining, exploitation, retail, inscription, grading, trading and industrial diamond manufacturing. The company is active in open-pi ...

group),

Trent (Westside) Trent Limited (portmanteau of Tata Retail Enterprise) is an Indian retail company, which is part of the Tata Group and based in Mumbai. Started in 1998, Trent owns and operates fashion and lifestyle retail formats such as Westside, Zudio and Ut ...

Tommy Hilfiger Thomas Jacob Hilfiger ( ; born March 24, 1951) is an American fashion designer and the founder of Tommy Hilfiger (company), Tommy Hilfiger Corporation. After starting his career by co-founding a chain of jeans/fashion stores called People's P ...

Jaypee Group Jaiprakash Associates Limited, commonly known as Jaypee Group, is an Indian conglomerate headquartered in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, with interests in engineering, construction, power, real estate, hospitality, IT, sports and education (non-pro ...

's Jaypee Greens,

Johnnie Walker Johnnie Walker is a brand of Scotch whisky produced by Diageo in Scotland. It was established in the Scottish burgh of Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire in 1820, and continued to be produced and bottled at the town's Hill Street plant, once the world's ...

Blue Label,

Kiehl's Kiehl's LLC is an American cosmetics brand retailer that specializes in skin, hair, and body care products. It started as a single pharmacy in Manhattan at Third Avenue and List of numbered streets in Manhattan#10th to 13th Streets, East 13th Str ...

Maggi Maggi (, ) is an international brand of seasonings, instant soups, and noodles that originated in Switzerland in the late 19th century. In 1947, the Maggi brand was acquired by the Switzerland, Swiss giant Nestlé. History Early history ...

and

Audi Audi AG () is a German automotive manufacturer of luxury vehicles headquartered in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. A subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group, Audi produces vehicles in nine production facilities worldwide. The origins of the compa ...

. Khanna has appeared in a

PETA People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA; ) is an American animal rights nonprofit organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, and led by Ingrid Newkirk, its international president. Founded in March 1980 by Newkirk and animal right ...

India campaign to protect elephants and birds.

Writing

Khanna has a signature humorous writing style. Apart from writing for his ow
blog
his pieces and essays have been published in several leading newspapers, magazines and websites including

Harper's Bazaar ''Harper's Bazaar'' (stylized as ''Harper's BAZAAR'') is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. Bazaar has been published in New York City since November 2, 1867, originally as a weekly publication entitled ''Harper's Bazar''."Corporat ...

India,

Vogue India ''Vogue India'' is the Indian edition of the monthly fashion and lifestyle magazine '' Vogue''. It is the 17th international edition of ''Vogue'' and the first edition in South Asia. ''Vogue India'' is published by Condé Nast India Pvt. Ltd., ...

Cosmopolitan (magazine) ''Cosmopolitan'' (stylized in all caps) is an American quarterly fashion and entertainment magazine for women, first published based in New York City in March 1886 as a family magazine; it was later transformed into a literary magazine and, si ...

India, Elle (India), GQ India,

Marie Claire ''Marie Claire'' (stylized in all lowercase; ) is a French international monthly magazine first published in France in 1937. Since then various editions are published in many countries and languages. The feature editions focus on women aro ...

India,

The Times of India ''The Times of India'' (''TOI'') is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by the Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, third-largest newspaper in India by circulation an ...

Deccan Herald ''Deccan Herald'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper published from the Indian state of Karnataka. It was founded by businessman K. N. Guruswamy and launched on 17 June 1948. It is published by The Printers Mysore, a privately hel ...

and

The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers p ...

India.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

Rahul Khanna - Official Site
*
Rahul Khanna's Twitter pageRahul Khanna Videos
{{DEFAULTSORT:Khanna, Rahul Khanna Rahul Indian male voice actors 1972 births Male actors from Mumbai Living people Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute alumni School of Visual Arts alumni Indian video jockeys Male actors in Hindi cinema Filmfare Awards winners Parsi male actors Parsi male writers People of Punjabi descent