He appeared in more than 400 films and started his career as a child artist in director BR Chopra’s Afsana in 1951. His success in that production, which was titled Mahabharat, led him to adopt his onscreen name.Ĭomic actor Jagdeep’s birth name was Syed Ishtiaq Ahmed Jaffery. Sanjay became an actor and director of repute in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s.Īrjun, who was born as Firoz Khan, is best known for playing the character of Arjun in BR Chopra’s televised adaptation of the ancient Indian epic, Mahabharata. Shah Abbas Khan started off using the name Sanjay in films like Dosti, Haqeeqat and Dus Lakh, following which he suffixed his onscreen name with ‘Khan’. She was also regarded as “The Beauty with Tragedy”. Following this, he nabbed the leading role in Jwar Bhata and the rest is history.īorn as Mumtaz Jehan Dehlavi in 1933 to a Pashtun family in Swabi, Pakistan, Madhubala was dubbed the “Venus of Indian cinema' because of her beauty and grace. He joined Bollywood after assisting the script department of Bombay Talkies where he met Devika Rani, who requested him to change his name to Dilip Kumar. Kumar was born as Mohammad Yusuf Khan to a Pashtun family in Peshawar, Pakistan. Her name later transformed into Meena Kumari. Born as Mahjabeen Bano in 1933, the actor was renamed by director Vijay Bhatt in 1939 to ‘Baby Meena’ during the time she performed as a child star. If Kumar was the King of Tragedy, Meena Kumari was the Tragedy Queen. And while the actual reasons for doing so may be best known to them, here is a list of renowned Muslim Bollywood figures who rechristened themselves.

The Indian film industry has seen a trove of stars changing their original names for being either too old-fashioned or unattractive, to trendier names of the time and place they were in. In response, Matondkar tweeted, “Shame on you.” And while we agree that changing names should not be looked down upon, it is pertinent to note that Kumar was not the only Muslim actor who changed his name upon venturing into the profession of performing arts. Yadav had taken a jibe at the late legend by saying, 'The death of Mohammad Yusuf Khan (Dilip Kumar), who earned money by keeping a Hindu name in the film world, is an irreparable loss to the Indian film industry.” Recently, Bollywood actor Urmila Matondkar schooled BJP leader Arun Yadav for belittling late actor Dilip Kumar in a tweet marking his demise.

All hindi actors names photos