“What’s in a name?” said William Shakespeare ages ago and we totally agree with him. Your name simply acts as a label to distinguish you from others. Still, a lot of us end up changing our names or adding a letter or two. Some do it for astrological reasons, others do it simply because they don’t like the name their parents gave them at the time of birth! Our Bollywood celebrities are the same. A lot of them have changed their names and we bet you had no idea about at least some of them.
Famous Bollywood Celebrities And Their Real Names
You might be a big Bollywood fan, but do you know the real names of these celebrities?
John Abraham
The Dhoom star’s birth name is Farhan Abraham. However, that was the name given to him by his mother. His father called him John and that is the name he decided to stick to when he made his Bollywood debut.
Johnny Lever
The king of 90s comedy, Johnny Lever’s birth name is nowhere even close to his reel name. His real name is John Prakasa Rao Janumala.
Amitabh Bachchan
We all love him and we all respect him. But did you know that Amitabh Bachchan’s real name is actually Inquilab Srivastava? It was changed after an Indian poet, Sumitranandan Pant suggested Harivansh Rai Bachchan that he changes his son’s name. “Amitabh” means “One with boundless splendour.” Sounds just about right, no?
Sridevi
One of the most popular actresses of her time, Sridevi who was known for her charming smile and her flawless acting. The late actress was actually born as Sri Amma Yanger Appan.
Dhanush
The Kolaveri Di and Ranjhana fame actor, Dhanush’s real name is Venkatesh Prabhu. Even though he has predominantly worked in Tamil films, he is a popular Bollywood face now.
Akshay Kumar
Our very own Khiladi also uses a different name on-screen. While we all know him as Akshay, his real name is actually Rajiv Hari Om Bhatia. Wow that’s a heavy one, right?
Katrina Kaif
Our darling Kat has a different surname. While she is known as Katrina Kaif, her birth surname is actually Katrina Torquotte. Well, that would have been hard to pronounce or what?
Salman Khan
The ‘bhai’ of Bollywood too has a different name off-screen. Well not really different, but Salman Khan’s full name is Abdul Rashid Salim Salman Khan.
Shilpa Shetty
Born as Ashwini Shetty, Shilpa’s name was changed by her mother, Sunanda Shetty who is also a well-known astrologer. She believed in numerology and well, we guess that worked well for her!
Tiger Shroff
First things first – Tiger’s father, Jai Kishan Kakubhai decided to enter films with a new name – Jackie Shroff. Needless to say, he suggested the name Tiger for his son who was born as Jai Hemant Shroff.
Sunny Leone
Sunny, our very own Laila was named Karenjit Kaur Vohra by her parents. She changed her name before entering the film industry.
Govinda
The hero number 1 was born as Govind Arun Ahuja. He decided to cut his name short for the entertainment business.
Prabhas
The Baahubali megastar Prabhas actually has a different birth name. His real name is Venkata Satyanarayana Prabhas Raju Uppalapati. Now that would have been one tough name to remember, right?
Saif Ali Khan
The Nawab of Bollywood was actually born with a different name. His real name is Sajid Ali Khan. We bet you had no idea about this one!
How many of these did you know?
