Anil Kapoor’s curious habit of changing names

Anil Kapoor has long consolidated his place for his body of work and high energy levels. But did you know that the actor had a habit of changing his names just when he was starting off as an actor? In a candid chat, Anil revealed to us, “When I began my career, I was doing bit roles, and I was not getting the kind of characters I wanted to do. So every other offer I got was these  minute parts only. But when I got an offer from Bapu sir for a leading man’s role in a Telugu film called Vamsa Vruksham, I was like, ‘I will settle here only as I’m not getting work in Hindi cinema’. If I would have retained my name as Anil Kapoor, then it would have given out that North Indian flavour. That time, actors down South were like NT Rama Rao, Nageshwar Rao so I gave my name as AK Rao.” He further adds, “After that Telugu film, I got to do a Mani Ratnam movie called Pallavi Anu Pallavi. Then I started getting work in Bollywood and things changed. I was okay with changing my name if it got me work.”

That’s not all. The Race 3 actor recalls another incident where he impersonated his elder brother, Boney Kapoor. “Before I started working as AK Rao, I did one show very where I had called myself Achal Kapoor, which is Boney’s real name. I thought that maybe because of the name, I wasn’t getting any work. That’s when I decided to stick to my own name, Anil Kapoor,” he laughs.