1. Amitabh Bachchan was born Amitabh Srivastava. However, before his birth, his family had almost decided to name him Inquilab.
2. India's favourite Canadian, Akshay Kumar, was born Rajiv Hari Om Bhatia.
3. Suriya's real name is Saravanan Sivakumar. It was director Mani Ratnam who changed his name in order to avoid any confusion with the actor Saravanan.
4. Saif Ali Khan was born Sajid Ali Khan Pataudi. This fact was revealed after he married Kareena Kapoor Khan.
5. Kiara Advani was initially called Alia Advani and changed her name upon Salman Khan's suggestion.
6. "Prabhas" is a mononym. His full name is Uppalapati Venkata Suryanarayana Prabhas Raju.
7. Rajkummar Rao was born Raj Kumar Yadav. He changed his surname because he wanted it to be Rao, as Yadav and Rao are the same family names in the state of Haryana, where he was born.
8. Kartik Aaryan was born Kartik Tiwari. This change happened because Aaryan was his middle name and he believed that Kartik Aaryan simply sounded better than Kartik Tiwari.
9. Vikram's actual name is Kennedy John Victor. Vikram is merely his stage name.
10. Ayushmann Khurrana was born Nishant Khurrana. His name was changed twice (including the spelling of "Ayushmann") because his father is an astrologer.
11. And Govinda wasn't always known as Govinda. He was born Govind Arun Ahuja. He had, in fact, changed his name six times before deciding on Govinda.
12. Nayanthara was born Diana Mariam Kurian. Nayanthara is her stage name, which became her official name after she converted to Hinduism.
13. Tiger Shroff was born Jai Hemant Shroff. His name was changed to Tiger owing to his...err...biting habits.
14. Vijay Sethupathi is simply his professional name. His full name is Vijaya Gurunatha Sethupathi Kalimuthu.
15. Tabu's actual name is Tabassum Fatima Hashmi. Tabu is her stage name.
16. Anushka Shetty was born Sweety Shetty. She changed this name to Anushka because it sounded childish.
17. Katrina Kaif's original name was Katrina Turquotte, with Turquotte being her mother's surname. She changed it to her father's surname, Kaif, because it was easier to pronounce and remember.
18. Dhanush was born Venkatesh Prabhu Kasthuri Raja. He changed his name in order to create a unique identity for himself, as his namesakes Prabhu Deva and Prabhu (Ilaya Thilagam) were already big stars before his debut.
19. Shilpa Shetty was born Ashwini Shetty. Her mother, Sunanda Shetty, made this change because of her belief in numerology.
20. Hrithik Roshan's actual surname is Nagrath. His grandfather Roshan Lal Nagrath Mohan, also a music director, was popularly known by his first name. The Roshan family simply started using that as their surname in order to honour his legacy.
21. It may come as a shock to many, but Yash was born Naveen Kumar Gowda. He changed this name because he felt that "Yash" was more suitable for his acting dreams.
22. Sunny Deol was born Ajay Singh Deol. He simply used his nickname, Sunny, upon entering the industry.
23. Ram Charan was born Konidela Ram Charan Teja. Ram Charan is his stage name.
24. Ajay Devgn was born Vishal Veeru Devgan. He changed his name to Ajay because there were three other "Vishals" debuting the same time he was.
25. One of Shahid Kapoor's official names is Shahid Khattar. Since his parents, Pankaj Kapur and Neelima Azeem, divorced when he was only 3 years old, and Azeem then married actor Rajesh Khattar, he lived with them until their divorce in 2001. Because of this fact, Shahid continues to use the surname Khattar in his passport.
