5 minutes of readingChennaiJanuary 29, 2026 20:31 IST
It is well documented that the late actor Vinod Khanna He left his career at its peak and his family, wife and two children, to follow the spiritual leader Osho and become a sanyasi. But what many don’t know is that Khanna was not the first Bollywood celebrity to follow the spiritual guru: it was filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt. Was Bhatt who had introduced Khanna to Osho.. However, Bhatt soon gave up his fascination with the spiritual leader. This, however, led Khanna, who was still following Osho, to take the spiritual leader’s threatening message to Bhatt.
In an old interaction on Arbaaz Khan’s chat show, Bhatt opened up about his relationship with Rajneesh. “I was a normal guy. I did films like Vishwasghaat and Manzilien Aur Bhi Hain which flopped. So I entered the spiritual supermarket; I went to Osho Rajneesh, who was a charismatic guru of Pune. “I went to see him and dedicated myself to him… ocher robes and meditation five times a day,” Bhatt said.
Admitting that he introduced Khanna to Osho, he said, “I took Vinod Khanna to Osho Rajneesh. While I broke the (connection), he continued. I broke the mala and threw it in the toilet. I thought I am still envious, but I am saying holy words… I feel like a hypocrite. I cannot lie to the world or to myself.”
Osho was not happy with Bhatt’s betrayal and sent his message through Khanna. “Vinod called me from Filmistan and told me that Bhagwan is very angry. You tore the mala and threw it in the toilet. I told him, ‘yes, I have. This is worthless; I am a damn fool.’ He said that Bhagwan had asked Mahesh to come back and give him the mala in person; otherwise, he said, and Vinod lowered his voice, ‘he will destroy you.'”
Osho called Bhatt ‘mouse’ and blamed his partner for his departure
In his book The 99 Names of Nothingness, Osho wrote about his consequences with Bhatt. “He knew this was going to happen. He knew it, because there were only two alternatives: either his girlfriend would become a sannyasin or he would become a non-sannyasin… and he was defeated by her,” he wrote.
Calling Bhatt a ‘mouse’ for having been influenced by his girlfriend, Osho wrote: “I call it a tragedy, because once that power is destroyed, she will no longer be interested in the man. This is the dilemma: she is interested in power, so the power feels terrifying. If the man remains so powerful then she will remain dependent; she will never be everything – and soon she begins to play feminine tricks. And because he loves her, the man continues to give in… Once he starts to give in, the Lions disappear and the mouse is born, and no woman is interested in a mouse, no woman at all. Once she has reduced the man to a mouse, she is finished and, as I can see, that is what has happened.
Vinod Khanna took a break from the film industry for five years.
Vinod Khanna returned from Oregon broken: Mahesh Bhatt
As Bhatt distanced himself from Osho, Khanna followed him to his ashram in Oregon, USA. However, after the collapse of Osho and the ashram, Khanna returned to Bombay. Bhatt told Subhash K Jha how he found Khanna “broken” upon his return. “When I turned around, he stayed and then disappeared in Oregon. I even flew to the US once to try to bring him back. But I was too far away. When Rajneesh’s dream collapsed, he came back broken. I found him again in a small apartment opposite Jaslok Hospital,” she said.
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He added: “That night we drank ourselves to pieces. But he said little. The old fire had gone out. He tried to find his place in the world of cinema again, but the dizzying heights he had once scaled remained out of reach. He veered into politics; I stayed with my stories.”
After his return to films, Khanna starred in hit films like Insaaf and Satyamev Jayate (1987). He later appeared in character roles in films such as Chandni, Dayavan and later Dabangg, but never regained the stardom he had experienced before he began following Osho. He also served as a member of Parliament. He died in 2003.