Sometimes, you get in on your name alone. Certain sections of Bollywood have turned this into a fine art - Shah Rukh Khan with Rahul, Salman with Prem and Amitabh Bachchan with an endless succession of Vijays and Amits. And then, there's the other kind of name that sticks - the kind that is used and re-used by multiple actors, assumed and then discarded role by role, film by film.
Thus it is that the celluloid world crafted by Bollywood is inhabited by characters who might have nothing in common but their name.
Mohini
Madhuri Dixit danced her way into India's collective movie-going conscience in an Ek Do Teen jiffy, playing dancer Mohini in 1988's Tezaab. In this year's Happy New Year, Deepika Padukone also plays a dancer named Mohini, intent on a diamond heist.
Bhairon
Aamir Khan has a friend named Bhairon Singh, otherwise known as Sanjay Dutt, in PKNamak Halaal
Mili
Jaya Bachchan's bubbly exterior hid the fact that she was terminally ill in 1975 film MiliKhubsooratMiliRangeela
Albert Pinto
One of Naseeruddin Shah's earliest screen successes was the angsty Goan mechanic who was the titular hero of Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyoon Aata HaiJalwa
Ramprasad and Lakshmanprasad/Lucky Sharma
For the want of a moustache, Amol Palekar ended up playing both Ramprasad Sharma and his fictional twin Lakshmanprasad a.k.a Lucky in 1979's Gol Maal
Chandni
Rekha in SilsilaChandniMain Hoon Na
Amar
In 1977, Vinod Khanna played the eldest of three separated-when-young brothers in Amar Akbar Anthony
Teja
Paresh Rawal was hilarious (though unsuccessful in villainy) as evil twin Teja in Andaz Apna ApnaMr IndiaZanjeer
Mona
Dimple Kapadia played the Saagar Jaise AankhonwaliSaagarZanjeerZanjeer
Bobby
Dimple again! In one of Bollywood's most sensational debuts, Bobby Braganza stole Rishi Kapoor's susceptible heart, and the audience's collective one, in 1973's BobbyHum TumparandhiBobby Jasoos
