This is why Akshay changed his name

In Bollywood, many actors changed their names before entering films. Muhammad Yusuf Khan became Dilip Kumar, Bhanurekha Ganesan changed her name to Rekha, Reema Lamba became Mallika Sherawat and Karenjit Kaur Vohra changed to Sunny Leone.

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Similarly Akshay Kumar’s original name was Rajeev Bhatia. Recently, Akshay revealed the reason why he changed his name.

Akki shared 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. Says Akshay, “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. Patanahi, dimag mein koi chahaa jatihai. And I just wanted to go, and change my name, and I went to the court in Bandra East and did it.”