United Producers and Film fare had arranged ‘All India Talent Contest’ in the year (1965) in order to hunt a fresh talent and Rajesh Khanna participated in the same. The judges in this contest were biggies of bollywood like B. R. Chopra, Subodh Mukherji, H. S. Rawail, Shakti Samanta, Chetan Anand, Bimal Roy, Nasir Hussain and G. P. Sippy who was the head amongst the lot. Almost there were 50,000 contestants had participated, out of which 10,000 were shortlisted and out of the same final 3 were considered and amongst 3, Rajesh Khanna was the winner. Surprisingly, Vinod Mehra had also been a part of it and was one of the finalists. He lost the contest to Rajesh Khanna and became male runner up of the contest.

When Rajesh Khanna was handed the dialogues during the contest, he questioned about the characterization, whether the person was a rich or poor and what his background. This was the first impression of Kaka and B. R. Chopra immediately questioned him as amongst so many contestants none could ask this question ‘Are you from theatre and Rajesh Khanna’s replied in yes’.

Though Rajesh Khanna had initially signed Raaz, but it was Chetan Anand’s Aakhri Khat which was released first as his debut movie. The latter was a flop, but was nominated as the first best foreign language for Oscars from India.

The first secretary in Rajesh Khanna’s film career was Mr. Gurnaam Taaji who was also his loyal friend.