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Stars who changed their Names

by: Meenakshi | last updated: February 24, 2009
Category: Bollywood | Tags: bollywood, mahima chaudhary, Akshay Kumar, John abrahim, rekha, rakhi sawant, mallika sherawat, Tabu, Ajay Devgan, Govinda, Jiah Khan, Kamal Hassan, Bobby Deol, Lucky Ali, Jhonny Lever, Jeetendra

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Be it superstition, numerology or just a sexy connotation- Bollywood stars are ready to change their names for any of these reasons. Let us take a look at our favourite stars who changed their names and looks like it actually helped them.

Ritu Chaudhury aka Mahima Chaudhury

Mahima Chaudhury was a model before she became an actress. She changed her name from Ritu Chaudhry to Mahima Chaudhry since Subhash Ghai has a superstitious belief of launching big careers with actresses whose name start with M.

Rajiv Hari Om Bhatia aka Akshay Kumar

Akshay Kumar did all types of odd jobs before he came in to the film industry. He even worked in Kolkata as a peon for a travel agency for a year and a half. One of his friends suggested modelling. Once in the field, he changed his name from Rajeev Hari Om Bhatia to Akshay Kumar. Previously he was known as Raju by his friends.

Reema Lamba aka Mallika Sherawat

She adopted the screen name of "Mallika", meaning "queen", to avoid confusion with other actresses named Reema. "Sherawat" is her mother's maiden name. She uses her mother's name as a tribute to her mother's love and support.

Govind Arun Ahuja aka Govinda

Govinda says that he is himself a numerologist and changed his name from Govind to Govida and it worked for him to be successful as an actor. That Govinda is called Chi Chi everyone knows, but did you know that he hates this name?

Nafisa aka Jiah Khan

Born in New York and raised in Chelsea, London, Khan is the daughter of Ali Rizvi Khan, a Muslim Indian American, and Rabiya Amin, a Hindi film actress in the 1980s from Agra and most remembered in Tahir Hussain's Dulha Bikta Hai. Khan has been rumored to be the daughter of Tahir Hussain and therefore related to Aamir Khan, but she dismissed the story as untrue. Khan has two younger sisters. Though born Nafisa, she changed her name to Jiah after Angelina Jolie's movie GIA, citing that it was sexier.

Farhan Abraham aka John Abraham

John's Parsi name is Farhan but his father gave him the name John.
Abraham started his career with the media firm Time & Space Media Entertainment Promotions Ltd., which however closed down due to financial problems. Later, he worked for Enterprises-Nexus as a media planner.

Neeru Sawant aka Rakhi Sawant

Rakhi Sawant has played so many roles in her real life. An item girl, seductress, actress, reality show participant, singer, super girl and what not. Now Rakhi has a new role to play. That of a cricket commentator.

Alwarpettai Aandavar aka Kamal Hassan

Kamal Haasan made his film debut as a 6-year-old child artiste, in the 1960 film, Kalathur Kannamma, directed by A. Bhimsingh. Kamal is the youngest of four children born in to an Iyengar family to Rajalakshmi and Srinivasan. His father, an attorney by profession, gave all his sons (Charu Haasan, Chandra Haasan, Kamal Haasan) the suffix of "Haasan" as a sign of his friendship to one Mr Haasan. Kamal is also a playback singer and sometimes pens the lyrics for the soundtracks of some of his recent films.

Tabassum Hashmi Khan aka Tabu

Tabassum "Tabu" Hashmi began her career in the film Hum Naujawan (1985) at the age of fifteen. She is the niece of Shabana Azmi and the younger sister of actress Farha Naaz. She has homes in Mumbai and Hyderabad.

Vijay Singh Deol aka Bobby Deol

His pet name is Bobby which became his screen name when he started acting. When he was 10 years old he made a very brief appearance in the 1977 movie Dharam Veer where he played the younger version of his father's character.

Bhanurekha Ganesan aka Rekha

Rekha is the love child of actors Gemini Ganesan and Pushpavalli. Born on October 10, 1954 in Madras, her real name is Bhanurekha. Instantly rejected by the audiences as fat and ugly, Rekha worked her way to looking beautiful by practicing yoga. The result was nothing short of a miracle.

Vishal Veeru Devgan aka Ajay Devgan

Devgan is originally from Punjab, of Sikh Tarkhan Ramgarhia origin. His father is Veeru Devgan, a stunt choreographer, his mother Veena Devgan produced one film and his brother, Anil Devgan, is a Bollywood film director.

Maqsood Mehmood Ali aka Lucky Ali

Lucky Ali is the second of the eight children of the popular Bollywood comedian, Mehmood. His mother Madhuri, was a Bengali and the sister of a popular Indian actress of the 1960s - Meena Kumari. Lucky Ali was gifted a guitar at age 13. He taught himself to play it.From music it went to horses, and then to acting, and direction, further on tor roughnecking on the rigs, to washing carpets finally returned to music Lucky made his debut on the Indian pop scene with the soulful album Sunoh which established him as a pop singer.

John Rao aka Jhonny Lever

Johnny Lever's real name is John Rao and he adopted Lever from 'Hindustan Lever' where he was working. Johnny Lever started off as a comedian in real life while still at school. His beginnings as a comedian in his village were mainly comprised of imitations of his teachers, his father and his grandfather. He could not study much though and dropped out of school when he was in seventh grade.

Ravi Kapoor aka Jeetendra

Jeetendra was given his screen name by his mentor, V Shantaram. He was, the young Ravi Kapoor studying BSc in Mumbai and looking after his family's imitation-jewellery business when the great Shantaram offered him walk-on parts in 'Navrang' and 'Sehra'.

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