Why did Vinod Khanna keep his illness a secret?

He said that he felt compelled to speak about it only because he was a public personality. The actor spoke about his battle with cancer two years after he was diagnosed.

Earlier this year, Vinod Khanna visited his constituency, Gurdaspar in Punjab. Amid the throng of people who rushed to see their elected representative, there were a few media persons who wanted to know about his long absence from the border town which experienced a terrorist attack.

It was only then that the actor opened up about his battle with cancer of the bladder. He revealed that he was undergoing a surgery when the Gurdaspur attack took place. He went on to say that his absence was a result of numerous doctor visits, chemotherapy and a trip to Germany in the hope that he would be cured.

Although Khanna spoke about the reason that kept him away from work, it was with hesitancy.  He added that he didn't speak about his illness when he got diagnosed as his daughter was about to give an important school exam. He feared that news of this would leave her shattered, especially at a time when she needed her parents' support the most. 

Khanna said he would have continued to keep it a secret if he wasn’t in the public life. However, he seemed healthy and even hopeful. He added that he was 80% cured, according to his doctors.

Unfortunately, the actor and member of parliament lost his fight to the disease that took his life on Thursday. According to the doctors at Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital in Mumbai, Khanna breathed his last at 11.20am.