In mid-day’s exclusive interview series, Sit With Hitlist, the Khiladi of Bollywood, Akshay Kumar, reveals why he decided to change his name from Rajeev Bhatia

Several celebrities have changed their name before entering Bollywood. Dilip Kumar (Muhammad Yusuf Khan), Sunny Leone (Karenjit Kaur Vohra), Rekha (Bhanurekha Ganesan) and Mallika Sherawat (Reema Lamba) are some of the stars known to have changed their name for the screen. Even Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar changed his name from Rajeev Bhatia. But do you know why? In mid-day exclusive interview, Sit With Hitlist, the ‘Padman’ actor revealed the real reason why he opted for a different name while joining films.

Akshay Kumar. File pic/mid-day archives

While speaking exclusively to mid-day, Akshay Kumar revealed that he was supposed to work as a martial arts teacher in Mahesh Bhatt’s film called ‘Aaj’ where he had a seven-second role. When he realised that the hero of the film is called Akshay, he decided to call himself Akshay as well. Elaborating on it, Akshay Kumar tells mid-day, “Kumar Gaurav was the hero in that film. He was called Akshay. And, I don’t know why, it’s not that I thought my name was bad. Rajeev is a very good name. Pata nahi, dimag mein koi chah aa jati hai [something just interests you in your head]. And I just wanted to go, and change my name, and I went to the court in Bandra East and did it. I have a full certificate as proof [of my name-change].”

That’s quite an interesting story, isn’t it?

Read the in-depth ‘Sit With Hitlist’ interview of Akshay Kumar with mid-day, where the ‘Airlift actor also spoke about losing out on Aamir Khan’s film ‘Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar’ (1993), his first pay-cheque, his audition days and many other unknown fascinating facets from his life before hitting stardom.

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