Naam toh suna hi hoga? 11 Bollywood stars whose real names and reel names have no rishta, naata, bandhan
Celebrities love to change their character names every now and then. While a few love to repeat their character names -- like Shah Rukh Khan's fascination with Raj, Salman Khan with Prem and Amitabh Bachchan with Vijay -- most of the actors prefer to get going with different character names.
However, changing names is not restricted to on screen characters as there are many who have changed their name before entering the film industry.
Rajeev Hari Om Bhatia:
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Have you ever heard of an actor named Rajeev Hari Om Bhatia? We bet most of you didn't know that Akshay Kumar's real name is Rajeev Bhatia. However, he decided to legally change his name to Akshay Kumar before debuting in Bollywood for reasons best known to him. Seems to have worked though, eh?
Govinda Arjun Ahuja:
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There is a funny scene in Shah Rukh Khan's Om Shanti Om where in Govinda Ahuja's lookalike comes to audition and he gets an advice to change his name to Govinda as that sounds pretty cool. While we don't really know what the real reason is, we wonder if the incident mentioned in Om Shanti Om was really what happened.
Kate Turquotte:
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That's right. Katrina Kaif pre-film industry had a perfectly British name. How thoughtful of Katrina to change her name as most of her fans would find it very difficult to pronounce this one, right?
Reema Lamba:
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Mallika Sherawat adopted her screen name Mallika as she wanted to avoid the confusion with other actresses named Reema. While Lamba is her father's surname, she decided to use her mother's maiden surname due to the tremendous support she got from her mother. Plus the alliteration, of course.
Shivaji Rao Gaekwad:
Rajinikanth">File photo
On director K Balachander's suggestion, Shivaji Rao Gaekwad changed his name to Rajinikanth and the rest is history. The name proved lucky for him and ever since then, Shivaji Rao Gaekwad was known as Rajinikanth. Or Rajinikanth was known as Shivaji Rao Gaekwad. We'll never know.
Sajid Ali Khan:
Saif Ali Khan">Photo: A screen grab from Bollywood film Race
We have so many Sajids in the film industry. Be it Sajid Nadiadwala, Sajid Khan or our very own Saif Ali Khan who was named Sajid Ali Khan upon his birth. Thankfully the actor changed his name before debuting in Bollywood.
Abdul Rashid Salim Salman Khan:
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Yes you read that right. That is what Salman Khan's full name was. Good he stuck to the shorter version.
Inquilab:
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The Big B of Bollywood was named Inquilab by his father Harivansh Rai Bachchan, however after a suggestion by Sumitra Nandan Pant, his name was changed to Amitabh. But Inquilab Bachchan would have been pretty grand, don't you think?
Ajay Singh Deol:
Photo: A screen grab from Bollywood film Indian
Sunny Deol loves his original name Ajay Singh Deol and he has used the same as his character name in many of his films. The actor changed his name to Sunny Deol for reasons close to the sun, we imagine.
Preetam Zinta Singh:
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Oi Preetammuh! A typical Punjabi name, Preetam got lucky in her childhood when her parents started calling her Preity lovingly. Plus it goes very well with them dimples.
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