Twinkle Khanna has spent most of her life being someone’s daughter, someone’s wife, or someone’s mother. And yet, she’s managed to become entirely her own person—sharp, unapologetic, and impossible to ignore.
Born on December 29, 1973, to Rajesh Khanna and Dimple Kapadia, Twinkle grew up in the wreckage of her parents’ marriage. By the time she was nine, her mother had left her father. Dimple raised Twinkle and her younger sister Rinkie largely on her own, returning to films to support the family. Rajesh Khanna, once Bollywood’s biggest star, faded into semi-obscurity and personal chaos.
The Bollywood Career That Never Took Off
In 1995, Twinkle made her acting debut in Barsaat opposite Bobby Deol. The film was a hit, but Twinkle’s acting wasn’t. Critics were kind at best, brutal at worst. She appeared in films like Mela, Baadshah, and Love Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega—most of them forgettable, a few outright disasters.
By 2001, she had quietly exited Bollywood. Unlike many star kids who cling to their film careers out of pride or desperation, Twinkle had the self-awareness to walk away. She married Akshay Kumar in 2001, had two children, and disappeared from the public eye—at least as an actor.
The Reinvention: Mrs. Funnybones and Beyond
What happened next surprised everyone. In 2015, Twinkle published Mrs. Funnybones, a collection of humorous essays about modern Indian womanhood, marriage, and motherhood. It became a bestseller. Not because of her last name, but because she could write—witty, self-deprecating, sharp observations delivered with perfect timing.
She followed it up with The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad (2016) and Pyjamas Are Forgiving (2018), both critically and commercially successful. She became a newspaper columnist, a producer (her film Pad Man tackled menstrual health), and a social media voice that combined humor with social commentary.
Twinkle Khanna, once dismissed as a failed actress, had become one of India’s most successful authors. She did it without leveraging nostalgia for her father’s legacy or riding her husband’s Bollywood fame. She did it by being funny, honest, and relentlessly herself.
The Complicated Relationship with Rajesh Khanna
Twinkle rarely spoke publicly about her father during his lifetime. When she did, the pain was palpable. In interviews, she admitted that Rajesh Khanna was a difficult man—charming but self-destructive, loving but absent. His alcoholism, his reclusive final years, his complicated personal life—all of it left scars.
By the time of his death in 2012, Twinkle had made peace with the fact that her father was more myth than man. But what she hadn’t anticipated was how messy things would get after he was gone.
The Legal Battle She Didn’t Ask For
Shortly after Rajesh Khanna’s death, another woman stepped into the spotlight. Anita Advani, who claimed to have been Khanna’s live-in partner during his final years, filed a lawsuit in 2013 against Twinkle, her mother Dimple, sister Rinkie, and husband Akshay Kumar.
Anita alleged she had been forcibly removed from Khanna’s Bandra bungalow, Aashirwad, and that she had never been shown his will. She claimed she wasn’t fighting for money—she was fighting for dignity and recognition.
The case remains unresolved in 2025, over a decade later. Twinkle has never publicly addressed it, maintaining the same boundary between public persona and private pain that has defined her life. But the ongoing legal battle has kept her father’s messy final years in the headlines, a reminder that some legacies refuse to be buried quietly.
For Twinkle, who has worked hard to build an identity separate from “Rajesh Khanna’s daughter,” the lawsuit must feel like being dragged back into a past she’s spent her adult life trying to move beyond.
Why Twinkle Matters
Twinkle Khanna’s story is one of reinvention. She refused to be defined by her father’s fading stardom or her brief, unsuccessful film career. She carved out a space where intelligence, humor, and honesty matter more than last names.
In doing so, she’s become something rare: a star kid who succeeded not despite walking away from Bollywood, but because of it.
Link Statement for Main Article: The legal dispute continues to simmer, with Anita Advani speaking out in a recent interview about her ongoing fight for dignity, claiming she was never shown Rajesh Khanna’s will and insisting her battle has never been about financial gain.
