Rajesh Khanna, the empathic tweeter, passes away

BANGALORE, INDIA: The first uncrowned superstar of Bollywood cinema, Rajesh Khanna, was no Amitabh Bachchan, who would later follow in his footsteps to the coveted throne, on Twitter. But he was always there on the microblogging site as well, when his industry friends passed away, expressing his condolences and grief.

As news came in by Wednesday afternoon that the 69-year-old stalwart had succumbed to an illness, the cause of which is not known to the public yet, the Twitterati started pouring in comments on the forum for his soul to rest in peace.

The yesteryear superstar was in and out of hospital over the recent weeks and got discharged from a Mumbai hospital on Monday.

Here are a few of his recent tweets, through which Rajesh Khanna (from his official handle @rajeshkhannamum), paid his tributes to industry veterans, as well as others:

Aug 15, 2011

"We have lost a great legend, Sh. Shammi Kapoor. But "THE SHAMMI KAPOOR" can not die, he still lives in our hearts & will always do."

Sep 22, 2011

 "My deep condolences to Sharmila, Saif, Soha n Saba, Tiger pataudi was a great sportsman & good human being...."my salute to TIGER PATAUDI"."

Oct 8, 2011

"Why the people spread or believe any rumours???? As tweeted by Mr. Bhupesh Raseen, I am fine and at my home only."

Oct 10, 2011

"Shocked to know about Jagjit Singh's death. We all will miss him. His music will live on forever."

Dec 4, 2011

"Dev Sahib is one of the greatest stars the Hindi Film Industry has seen. Hats off to him for remaining young & active right till the end."

Incidentally, his last and final tweet, posted on April 21 this year, had a Bangalore link to it.

It read, "Yesterday evening came back to Mumbai from Bangalore after shooting of an ad film."