South Bombay has always been coveted as a the property hotspot in Mumbai. Maybe it is because it is the oldest part of the city, because it was ‘the Bombay’ during the grandiose days of the British Raj, or maybe because it has the best 5 star hotels, magnificent apartments with a panoramic view of the sea and prime business centers. Whatever the reason, property in this tony area has always sold at premium rates. In spite of the steeply rising prices, there are a number of buyers who are willing to pay phenomenally high rates for an apartment in South Mumbai.

Today, real estate in south Mumbai is very limited, interest is high on luxury property due to the status value attached to them. Celebrities, Affluent executives, and NRI’s have steadily been breaking records for the highest priced real estate. Recently a NRI, from London, acquired a 3475 sq ft property in NCPA apartments at Nariman Point for Rs 97,842 per sq ft. Now Bollywood actor and BJP MP Vinod Khanna has broken this record by buying a resident in an up market residential enclave at Malabar Hill for a whopping 1.25 lakh a sq ft. On 20 ^th May 2008, II Palazzo, one of Malabar Hill’s most prominent landmark buildings, created a national record after the apartment was sold at the rate of Rs 1.20 lakh a square foot. Formerly owned by Citibank, the apartment is a 2,500 sq ft sea-facing flat with a large living room, spacious bedrooms and a separate servant’s quarter.

The selling price of the flat was four times higher than the original reserve price of Rs. 32,000 per sq ft. Khanna paid Rs. 31.25 crore for the apartment. The flat was put on sale a couple of weeks ago and the auction took place at the Citibank office in the IL&FS building in the Bandra-Kurla Complex. There were around 12 other bidders in the auction which was conducted by Mrunal Duggar of C B Richard Ellis, a global property consultancy firm. Vinod Khanna won the grueling auction, creating a new Luxury Real Estate Price Record in Mumbai.

Vinod Khanna debuted in Sunil Dutt’s 1968 film Man Ka Meet as a villain. He acted in multi-starrer films often playing supporting and negative roles in hit films such as Purab Aur Paschim (1970), Sachaa Jhutha (1970) and Mera Gaon Mera Desh(1971). His big break was in the 1971 film Mere Apne directed by Gulzar. His sensitive performance as an army officer facing death row in another Gulzar scripted and directed 1973 film Achanak was critically acclaimed. The songless film echoed the true life story of K. M. Nanavati vs. State of Maharashtra and Khanna portrayed Kawas Nanavati, the real life Navy officer.

He went on to star in many hits throughout the mid 1970s and early 1980s, including Parvarish (1977), Amar Akbar Anthony (1977), Khoon Pasina (1977), Muqaddar Ka Sikander (1978), The Burning Train (1980) and Qurbani (1980). Having peaked in Bollywood, he became a follower of the spiritual teacher Osho (Rajneesh) and left the film industry in 1979 for eight years. At this time, he was the most successful actor in the Bollywood, competing with Amitabh Bachchan. He rejoined the industry, eight years later in mid 1980s. He continued to appear in many notable films from the mid 1980s to the 1990s such as Dayavan (1988), Chandni (1989), Kshatriya (1993) Eeena Meena Deeka (1994) and Ekka Raja Rani (1994).

In 1997, he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and was nominated from Gurdaspur, East Punjab in the next year’s Lok Sabha poll.

The star-factor helped him oust three time Lok Sabha member Sukhbans Kaur Bhinder. Bhinder’s perceived inability to develop the area outweighed the “outsider” tag applied to Khanna. The latter became union minister for culture and tourism in July 2002. Six months later he was moved to the more important ministry of external affairs (MEA) as minister of state. In 2004 he won re-election from Gurdaspur.

He was the highest taxpayer in Mumbai in 1990-91. Presently, he continues to participate in the film business based out of Dubai. His sons Akshay Khanna and Rahul Khanna are Hindi film actors.

Wikipedia on Vinod Khanna