Vinod Khanna
Vinod Khanna makes a victory sign during an election campaign rally on the outskirts of Gurdaspur, India.

MUMBAI (Diya TV) — Veteran Bollywood sensation Vinod Khanna passed on Thursday at the age of 70, according to a hospital statement.

Khanna died of advanced bladder cancer on Thursday morning, said Tushar Pania, from the HN Reliance Foundation and Research Centre in Mumbai.

Khanna, who was dubbed Bollywood’s “original heartthrob,” had reportedly been battling the cancer for several years. He was hospitalized last month in Mumbai due to severe dehydration and bladder cancer, according to a report in the Hindustan Times. Tributes to the actor poured in on social media, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also paying his respects.

In a career that spanned more than four decades, Khanna has been credited with appearances in more than 100 films.

He’s best remembered for his performances in movies such as “Mera Gaon, Mera Desh,” (“My Village, My Country”), “Gaddaar,” (“Traitor”), “Kuchhe Dhaage,” (“Fragile Threads”), “Amar, Akbar, Anthony,” which he co-starred in with fellow superstar Amitabh Bachchan, and “Qurbani,” (“Sacrifice”) — one of several films for which he received a Filmfare Award nomination, India’s equivalent to an Oscar.

Khanna was born in 1946 in Peshawar, British India, now Pakistan. He moved with his family to Mumbai the same year, soon after the partition of India and Pakistan. Khanna debuted on the silver screen for the first time in 1968 in “Man Ka Meet,” (“A Pairing of Hearts”), where he played the villain, a trend that continued for much of the start of his career.

Three years later, he made the successful transition to the “hero” and played the lead role in “Hum, Tum or Woh,” (“Me, You and Them”).

Khanna returned to acting in 1987 after a five-year sabbatical, appearing in a slew of romantic films. In 1999, he received the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award and less than a decade later, in 2007, he won the ZEE Cine Lifetime Achievement Award.

Away from the screen, Khanna was also a well-known politician. In 1997 he joined the current ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The following year, he was elected to India’s lower house of parliament. He was elected four times from his constituency in the northern state of Punjab.

He is survived by his second wife Kavita, his children Rahul, Akshaye, Sakshi and Shraddha. Rahul and Akshaye are both also actors; his son Rahul Khanna is best known to international audiences for playing Yousaf Rana in the spy thriller television series, “The Americans.”