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25 Indian Celebrities Whose Real Names I Am 99.9% Sure You Didn't Know
Still can’t get over the fact that Ayushmann Khurrana was born Nishant Khurrana.
1. Amitabh Bachchan was born Amitabh Srivastava. However, before his birth, his family had almost decided to name him Inquilab.
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Bachchan revealed that his father, the poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan, changed their surname in order to conceal any indication of their caste.
2. India’s favourite Canadian, Akshay Kumar, was born Rajiv Hari Om Bhatia.
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He made this change because in his first ever film, Aaj, in which Akshay had a cameo appearance, the lead actor Kumar Gaurav’s character was called “Akshay”.
3. Suriya’s real name is Saravanan Sivakumar. It was director Mani Ratnam who changed his name in order to avoid any confusion with the actor Saravanan.
4. Saif Ali Khan was born Sajid Ali Khan Pataudi. This fact was revealed after he married Kareena Kapoor Khan.
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5. Kiara Advani was initially called Alia Advani and changed her name upon Salman Khan’s suggestion.
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6. “Prabhas” is a mononym. His full name is Uppalapati Venkata Suryanarayana Prabhas Raju.
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7. Rajkummar Rao was born Raj Kumar Yadav. He changed his surname because he wanted it to be “Rao” as Yadav and Rao are the same family names in the state of Haryana, where he was born.
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8. Kartik Aaryan was born Kartik Tiwari. This change happened because “Aaryan” was his middle name and he believed that Kartik Aaryan simply sounded better than Kartik Tiwari.
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9. Vikram’s actual name is Kennedy John Victor. Vikram is merely his stage name.
10. Ayushmann Khurrana was born Nishant Khurrana. His name was changed twice (including the spelling of “Ayushmann”) because his father is an astrologer.
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11. And Govinda wasn’t always known as Govinda. He was born Govind Arun Ahuja. He had, in fact, changed his name six times before deciding on “Govinda”.
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13. Tiger Shroff was born Jai Hemant Shroff. His name was changed to Tiger owing to his…err…biting habits.
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14. Tabu’s actual name is Tabassum Fatima Hashmi. Tabu is her stage name.
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16. Katrina Kaif’s original name was Katrina Turquotte, with “Turquotte” being her mother’s surname. She changed it to her father’s surname, “Kaif”, because it was easier to pronounce and remember.
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There are, however, several speculations regarding Katrina’s actual name, one of which is that Ayesha Shroff, the producer of Katrina’s debut film, Boom, recommended the surname “Kaif” to her owing to the popularity of cricketer Mohammad Kaif during the early 2000s.
17. Dhanush was born Venkatesh Prabhu Kasthuri Raja. He changed his name in order to create a unique identity for himself as his namesakes Prabhu Deva and Prabhu (Ilaya Thilagam) were already big stars before his debut.
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19. Hrithik Roshan’s actual surname is “Nagrath“. His grandfather, Roshan Lal Nagrath Mohan, also a music director, was popularly known by his first name. The Roshan family simply started using that as their surname in order to honour his legacy.
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20. It may come as a shock to many but Yash was born Naveen Kumar Gowda. He changed this name because he felt that “Yash” was more suitable for his acting dreams.
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22. Ram Charan was born Konidela Ram Charan Teja. Ram Charan is his stage name.
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Similarly, his father, superstar Chiranjeevi was born Konidela Siva Sankara Vara Prasad. However, his name was changed owing to his family’s belief in Lord Hanuman.
23. Ajay Devgn was born Vishal Veeru Devgan. He changed his name to Ajay because there were three other “Vishals” debuting at the same time as him.
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Moreover, he changed the spelling of his surname at the request of his mother.
24. One of Shahid Kapoor’s official names is Shahid Khattar. Since his parents Pankaj Kapur and Neelima Azeem divorced when he was only three years old, and Azeem then married actor Rajesh Khattar, he lived with them until their divorce in 2001. Owing to this fact, Shahid continues to use the surname “Khattar” in his passport.
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25. And finally, Sai Pallavi’s full name is Sai Pallavi Senthamarai.
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