5 Famous Muslim Bollywood Actors Who Adopted Hindu Screen Names
We have seen too many Khans and Kumar or Kapoors in Bollywood who have dominated the silver screen since past so many years. On the behest of one of the most of the producers and directors, the Bollywood has witnessed an entire a lot of B Town stars that tend to have gone in for a change of the name as their original names that were seen either too old-fashioned or unattractive. In order to avoid the clashes with several other star names and to make it more catch and trendy it went on to change their names simply the ones of other religion and culture. Some of the B Town actors being Hindus changed their names to the Hindu names while some of the Muslim actors were seen changing their name to the ones of Hindus. Let’s check the top 5 actors who have adopted Hindu screen names despite being Muslims as under:
1). Dilip Kumar (Muhammad Yusuf Khan)
He is known as the ‘Shehenshah’ of Bollywood apart from being the tragedy king. With his flawless performances, we could certainly say that he was born to act. Dilip Kumar was being born and brought up in a Pathan-family in Peshawar, Pakistan wherein he was named as Muhammad Yusuf Khan. He initially joined Bollywood by helping the script department of Bombay Talkies wherein he was seen meeting the top actress Devika Rani who seemed requesting him in order to change his name to Dilip Kumar.
2). Madhubala (Mumtaz Jehan Dehlavi)
It is considered as country’s Marilyn Monroe and the epitome of incredible beauty. Madhubala when born, she was named as Mumtaz Jehan Dehlavi in a Pashtun family in Swabi district, which happens to be the part of North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan in the year 1933. She made her debut on the silver screen as a child artiste in the film ‘Basant’ (1942). The yesteryear actress Devika Rani was soon rechristened as Madhubala in order to suit the silver screen, while the rest was simply history.
3). Ajit (Hamid Ali Khan)
We all remember Ajit, who happens to be the most dreadful villains of B Town. He was born in Golconda in the year 1922 and has acted in a number of movies including ‘Kurukshetra’ wherein he was seen using his real name, Hamid Ali Khan. When he acted in the film ‘Bekasoor’, K Amarnath bestowed him with a very shorter name on him called ‘Ajit’. He then adopted this name and gave a number of movies including ‘Suraj’, ‘Zanjeer’, ‘Kalicharan’ and ‘Yaadon Ki Baaraat’, to name a few.
4). Johnny Walker (Badruddin Jamaluddin Kazi)
She is known for his squeaky voice having the pencil-thin moustache often seen in the character of a drunken man. Johnny Walker is still remembered for incredible performances with cool comedians to grace the silver screen. He was seen in a number of movies with ‘Baazi’ as a drunkard. Johnny Walker did around 300 films before he breathed his last at the age of 82.
5). Meena Kumari (Mahjabeen Bano)
She is regarded as one of the greatest actresses of B Town and termed as tragedy queen who acted in not less than 90 films. However, she was born as Mahjabeen Bano who happened to be a Sunni Muslim family in 1933. When she started her career in B Town as the child artiste in the year 1939 and it was rechristened as Baby Meena which was directed by Vijay Bhatt.
