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Roop K. Shorey was sitting in Gaylord, a restaurant at Churchgate, Bombay, popular with the film folks patronising it. He spotted Vinod Mehra and gave him his first break in 'Ek Thi Rita' (1971). Vinod was paired opposite Tanuja in this film. However, it was 'Anurag' (1972) with Moushumi Chatterjee that really launched his career in films. He was lucky with most of his films which included 'Shandar', 'Parde ke Peeche', 'Elaan', 'Vardan', 'Anurodh','Sab Se Bada Rupaiya', 'Saajan Bina Suhagan', 'Ghar' and 'Amar Prem'.
He was one of the few stars who acted as a parallel hero without creating problems for the producers. 'Lal Patthar' (with Raaj Kumar), 'Jurmana' (with Amitabh Bachchan), 'Arjun Pandit' (with Sanjeev Kumar), 'Amar Prem' and 'Amar Deep (both with Rajesh Khanna) are some such two-hero films. Besides acting in several films with Rekha, with whom he also had a brief marriage, Vinod also acted in her brother's film,'Naya Bakra'.
Though he was considered a chocolate-faced hero, Mehra tried being versatile and even accepted a negative character role in 'Kartavya'. More than his films, Vinod remained in the news for his various marriages. He married Rekha. He married the girl of his mother's choice Meena Broca. Then came a marriage with Bindiya. The last one was with Kiran Mehra. He became a director with 'Gurudev', which starred Rishi Kapoor, Anil and Sridevi. This film took too long in making and the tension took its toll. He died of a heart attack. His wife Kiran completed the film.
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