Namkaran Ceremony: Do You Know the Real Names of These Actors?

Tiger Shroff

Would it surprise you to learn that Tiger is not the name that Jackie Shroff's son was born with? The Heropanti actor's real name is Jai. He was nicknamed Tiger because he used to bite and scratch as a little boy, and has now officially adopted it as his screen name.

Katrina Kaif

Katrina dropped her real last name - Turquotte – for something easier to say and spell. She almost chose Kazi as her last name before plumping for Kaif – early posters and publicity material for debut film Boom read Katrina Kazi and were later explained away as printer's errors.

Sridevi

It's hard to imagine a less glamorous name than Shree Amma Yanger Ayyapan. And so she became Sridevi.

Mallika Sherawat

Originally named Reema Lamba, this actress switched to Mallika and her mother's maiden name Sherawat.

Sunny Leone

There was no way Karenjit Kaur Vohra was keeping her own name in the X-rated films she starred in. When she turned legit, there was little point in going back and so Sunny Leone kept the name that had made her famous.

Mishti

This newcomer's real name is Indrani Chakraborty but she introduced herself as Mishti in Bollywood just weeks ago, in Subhash Ghai's Kaanchi.

Nagma

The Southern star's unlikely real name is Nandita Morarji, which she changed to Nagma in 1990 for debut film Baaghi.

Rajinikanth

Not only is Rajinikanth not Tamil, his name isn't Rajinikanth either. The legendary star is Marathi by birth and his real name is Shivaji Rao Gaikwad. He was rechristened Rajinikanth by director K Balachander.

Chiranjeevi

Konidala Siva Sankara Vara Prasad was clearly a mouthful so this Telugu star did the smart thing and changed his name to one suggested by his mother.

Rajesh Khanna

India's first superstar was born Jatin Khanna. His uncle suggested he change his name to Rajesh when he started out in Bollywood, and he was also popularly known by the nickname Kaka.

Akshay Kumar

Akshay Kumar's real name is no secret. The Khiladi actor was born Rajeev Hari Om Bhatia.

Jeetendra

Rajesh Khanna's school-mate's real name is Ravi Kapoor and nobody really knows why he chose Jeetendra as his screen name.

Dilip Kumar

Yusuf Khan was discovered running a military canteen in Pune and was renamed Dilip Kumar by Hindi author Bhagwati Charan Varma.

Nargis

Fatima Rashid, daughter of a famous courtesan, became Baby Nargis aged all of six and then dropped the ‘Baby' when she was 14.

Madhubala

Mumtaz Jehan Begum Dehlavi shot to fame as the more snappily named Madhubala.

Meena Kumari

Mahjabeen Bano made her debut as Baby Meena at the age of seven. 10 years later, she was Meena Kumari and on her way to stardom.

Ajay Devgn

Ajay Devgn, a believer in numerology, changed his name twice. He switched from his real name of Vishal to Ajay for his debut in 1992 and then dropped the letter A from his last name along the way.

Guru Dutt

If you thought Deepika was Bollywood's only Padukone, surprise! Actor-director Guru Dutt's real name was Vasanth Kumar Shivashankar Padukone and his family was originally from Karnataka.

Jaya Prada

Her original name, Lalita Rani, was as good as any – but not good enough for the makers of the film Bhoomi Kosam in which she had a three-minute dance sequence and was billed as Jaya Prada.

Sanjeev Kumar

Born Harihar Jethalal Jariwala, one of India's most admired actors jettisoned his Gujarati name for something more universal.