From Reel to Real: Bollywood Celebs Who Transformed Their Identities Before Making Their Debut

Saif’s birth name is Sajid Ali Khan, which he altered to Saif Ali Khan.

Rekha’s full name is Bhanurekha Ganesan. She abbreviated her name to Rekha and used it as her stage name. She is the daughter of Tamil and Telugu performers Gemini Ganesan and Pushpavalli.

Kiara Advani’s real name is Alia Advani. Alia Bhatt was already a well-known actress when she made her film debut. So she changed her name to Kiara so that people wouldn’t confuse her with Bhatt.

Ayushmann Khurrana’s original name is Nishant Khurrana. His parents changed his name to Ayushmann Khurrana when he was 3 years old. His father who was an astrologer later added extra alphabets to his name.

Ajay Devgn was born as Vishal. However, since there were many actors named Vishal, he changed his name to Ajay before his debut.

Tiger Shroff’s birth name is Jai Hemant Shroff. Following in his father’s footsteps, he changed his name to Tiger because of his biting tendency. He used to bite anything and everything at school, which earned him the nickname Tiger.

His parents decided to name their baby Inquilaab after the slogan Inquilab Zindabad (Long live the revolution), which was used during the Indian independence fight. However, they named him Amitabh after the poet Sumitranandan Pant proposed it.

EXPLORE