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A tall and lanky boy from Allahabad, Amitabh Srivastav decided to try his luck in the city of dreams, Mumbai as an actor. After several tries, he got a film, Saat Hindustani and gave it his best shot. But the movie failed miserably. The next string of movies he appeared in bombed at the box office, but he didn’t lose hope. He was determined to make it work and soon he did. He took on the surname Bachchan and Amitabh never looked back thereafter

Yusuf Khan shot to fame only after he changed his name to Dilip Kumar and delivered movies like Devdaas, Naya Daur and Mughal-e-Azam, that have re-defined Indian cinema. Haribhai Jarivala rechristened Sanjeev Kumar and became famous for his phenomenal acting in Khilona, Trishul and Angur. Devdutt Pishorimal Anand nee Dev Anand couldn’t have become a romantic icon with a Godly name like Devdutt? Hamid Ali Khan changed his name to become the famous villain Ajit. Our own Jitendra was actually Ravi Kapoor before donning the white shoes of filmdom. Johnny Lever’s real name is Badruddin Qazi. While working at Hindustan Lever, he participated in a function where his stand-up and mimicry became an instant hit and the union leader there, christened him ‘Johnny Lever’. Ashok Kumar was actually Kumud Ganguly. The diva of yesteryears Madhubala was Mumtaz Begum. Shammi Kapoor, the naughty romantic star was born Shamsher Kapoor.

There happen to be a number of reasons behind a name change. Most of the stars happen to change their name just because their real names are not-so-cool or catchy. Others go by numerology and phonetics. Many change their names just for the heck of it. However, it is almost impossible to nail down a single reason behind our bollywood stars changing their names. Here is a list of stars that have managed to change their names and carry it off pretty successfully.

Aamir Khan - Aamir Hussain Khan

Ajay Devgan - Vishal Devgan

Ajit - Hamid Ali Khan

Akshay Kumar - Rajiv Bhatia

Amitabh Bachchan - Amit Bachchan

Ashok Kumar - Kumud Ganguly

Bobby Deol - Vijay Singh Deol

Dev Anand - Devdutt Pishorimal Anand

Dharmendra - Dharam Singh Deol

Dilip Kumar - Yusuf Khan

Govinda - Govind Arun Ahuja

Jeetendra - Ravi Kapoor

John Abraham - Farhan Abraham

Kamal Haasan- Alwarpettai Aandavar

Kumar Gaurav - Manoj Tulli

Lucky Ali - Maqsood Mehmood Ali

Madhubala - Mumtaz Jehan Begum Dehlavi

Mahima Chaudhry - Ritu Chaudhry

Mallika Sherawat - Reema Lamba

Manoj Kumar - Hare Krishna Goswami

Nana Patekar - Vishwanath Patekar

Raj Kumar - Kulbushan Pandit

Rajesh Khanna - Jatin Khanna

Rajnikant - Sivaji Rao Gaekwad

Rekha - Bhanurekha Ganesan

Salman Khan- Abdul Rashid Salim Salman Khan

Sanjeev Kumar - Haribhai Jarivala

Shammi Kapoor - Shamsher Raj Kapoor

Shashi Kapoor - Balbirraj Kapoor

Sunil Dutt - Balraj Dutt

Sunny Deol - Ajay Singh Deol

Tuntun : Uma Devi Khatri

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