Several Indian movie stars, singers and directors have fancy names that are often so different from their real names.
Why that should be so is not hard to fathom.
As a matter of fact, it’s so simple in the Indian milieu.
Indians with names like Gunasekhar Pandiarajan, Rajendra Prasad Purkoyastha, Badrinath Chattopadhyay, Sitalakshmi Ammal or Ritabadoornath Patel yearn for the ‘appeal’ of a Rajesh Khanna, Dharmendra, Rekha or Sridevi to banish the monotony of their dreary existences.
Jatin Khanna – A Superstar?
Would Jatin Khanna have achieved super-stardom with that name?
Never.
Only with the name Rajesh Khanna did Jatin reach the stratospheric heights of success and super-stardom.
Would a big-bosomed Tamil girl have turned into a fantasy for young Indian boys bearing the name Bhanurekha Ganesan?
Never.
She needed to be Rekha to reach that high.
Here’s a brief list of Indian movie stars with their assumed names:
Movie Name – Real Name
Aamir Khan – Aamir Hussain Khan
Aditya Pancholi/Panscholi – Nirmal Pancholi/Panscholi
Asrani – Govardhan Asrani
Ajay Devgan – Vishal Devgan
Ajit – Hamid Ali Khan
Akshay Kumar – Rajiv Hari Om Bhatia
Ashok Kumar – Kumudlal Kunjilal Ganguly
Bhavana – Karthika Menon
Bobby Deol – Vijay Singh Deol
Chiranjeevi – Konidela Siva Shankara Vara Prasad
Dev Anand – DharamDev Pishorimal Änand
Dharmendra – Dharam Singh Deol
Dilip Kumar – Yusuf Khan
Gemini Ganesan – Ramasamy Ganesan
Guru Dutt – Vasanth Kumar Shivashankar Padukone
Jagdeep – Syed Jawaher Ali Jaffry
Jayant – Zakaria Khan (father of Amjad and Imtiaz Khan)
Jamuna – Jamuna Ramanarao
Jayalalitha – Jayaram Jayalalitha
Jaya Pradha – Lalita Rani
Jeetendra – Ravi Kapoor
Johnny Lever – Janardhana Rao
Johnny Walker – Badruddin Jamaluddin Kazi
Kiccha Sudeep – Abhinaya Chakravarthy
Kumar Gaurav – Manoj Tulli
Mallika Sherawat – Reema Lamba
Mammooty – Muhammad Kutty
Mani Ratnam – Gopala Ratnam Subramaniam Iyer
Manoj Kumar – Harikishan Giri Goswami
Meena Kumari – Mahjabeen Bano
Meera Jasmine – Jasmine Mary Joseph
MGR – Marudur Gopalamenon Ramachandran
Mithun Chakraborty – Gouranga Chakraborty
Mohanlal – Mohanlal Viswanathan Nair
Mukesh – Mukesh Chand Mathur (classic play-back singer)
Mysskin – Shanmugha Raja
Nargis – Fatima Rashid
Nayantara – Diana Mariam Kurian – Nayantara
Paintal – Kanwarjit Paintal
N T Rama Rao – Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao
Rajesh Khanna – Jatin Khanna
Rajinikanth – Shivaji Rao Gaekwad
Rajkumar – Singanalluru Puttaswamayya Muthuraju
Rekha – Bhanurekha Ganesan
Revathi – Asha Kelunni
Sadashiv Amrapurkar – Ganesh Kumar Narwode
Salman Khan – Abdul Rashid Salim Salman Khan
Sandhya – Revathy
Sanjeev Kumar – Harihar Jariwala
Savithri – Savithri Kommareddy
Shammi Kapoor – Shamsher Raj Kapoor
Shashi Kapoor – Balbir Raj Kapoor
Sivaji Ganesan – Viluppuram Chinnaiahpillai Ganesan
Sivakumar – Palanichamy Gounder
Subraveti Ramaswamiah Seetharama Sharma – S.R.Puttanna Kanagal
Sunil Dutt – Balraj Dutt
Sunny Deol – Ajay Singh Deol
Sunny Leon – Karenjit Kaur Vohra
Surya – Saravanan Sivakumar
Urvasi – Kavitha (Tamil and Malayalam movie actress)
Vanisri – Ratna Kumari
Vijay – Joseph Vijay Chandrasekhar
Vikram – John Kennedy
Vishnuvardhan – Sampath Kumar
Read SearchIndia.com’s Bollywood Movie Reviews here.
Indian Movie Stars & Their Fancy Names added by SearchIndia.com on
View all posts by SearchIndia.com →
I just happened to notice this. Guru Dutt, the reel and real-life tragic hero, is actually a Kannadiga. His real name is “Vasanth Kumar Shivashankar Padukone”, and is also related to noted filmmaker, Shyam Benegal. All this time I thought he was a Punjabi “Dutt” like Sunil (Balraj) Dutt.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Thanks for the info. Like you, we also thought he was a North Indian. Very few Kannadigas in Bollywood.
We’ve updated the list to include Guru Dutt.
Revathi – Asha Kelunni
Vikram – John Kennedy (Can’t get fancier than this)
i thought Vikram was a brahmin till I saw his real name
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Thanks…We have updated the list.
Thank God, Vikram’s a Kennedy and not a Bush.
This is some info. Is this trend prevalent in Hollywood and elsewhere other than the Indian industry. Even in Sri Lanka some of the yesteryear film stars have fancy names like Vijay Kanth – Rajni Kanth, Sivaji Ganeshan – Gemini Ganeshan, Ashok Kumar – Dilip Kumar…..
They are Gamini Fonseka – Malini Fonseka (Actress). But, I don’t have any info re-their real names.
Funny things happens in the world.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
We’ve seen Malini Fonseka in Pilot Premnath.
Is Tamil film actress Revathy (80’s) a keralite/Malayalee? I love her movies very much. I think she’s talented to some extent.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You write above: Is Tamil film actress Revathy (80’s) a keralite/Malayalee?
Yes, according to Wiki.
Yes, she is mallu, but I believe did her high school in Chennai. kinda like the other Revathy a.k.a Sandhya.
I think she considers herself tamil going by the gif on her blog
http://passionforcinema.com/author/revathy/
It says “Sindhanaigal”..
She has heaped praises on “Mumbai Meri Jaan”.. SI, any plans on reviewing that? It is also rated highly by other critics.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You write above: She has heaped praises on “Mumbai Meri Jaan”.. SI, any plans on reviewing that?
Maybe.
Here are some more.
Jagdeep- Syed Jawaher Ali Jaffry
Johnny Walker- Badruddin Jamaluddin Kazi
Jayant- Zakaria Khan (father of Amjad and Imtiaz Khan)
Ajit – Hamid Ali Khan
Mukesh- Mukesh Chand Mathur (classic play-back singer)
Kumar Gaurav- Manoj Tulli
Aditya Pancholi/Panscholi- Nirmal Pancholi/Panscholi
Asrani- Govardhan Asrani
Paintal- Kanwarjit Paintal
Johnny Lever- Janardhana Rao
Urvasi- Kavitha (Tamil and Malayalam movie actress)
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Thanks.
We’ve updated the above list.
Nayantara –
Diana Mariam Kurian– NayantaraMysskin – Shanmugha Raja
Bhavana – Karthika Menon
Mani Ratnam – Gopala Ratnam Subramaniam Iyer
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Added. Thanks.