Actress Tamannaah believes an additional ‘a’ and a ‘h’ have brought her the luck all her hardwork in Tollywood did couldn’t. The actress, who changed the spelling following a consultation with a numerologist, attributes her slew of good offers and successes to this new name.
And a fancy to change names or spellings in showbiz, isn’t always confined to actors. Director Vaseegaran believed his name could affect the fortunes of his delayed debut project, Manjal Veyyil, and has renamed himself Raja now. Two months hence, his film, starring Prasanna and Sandhya, is yet to see light of day. Interestingly, director Suresh, who has been a hit director in Telugu, is back in Tamil with a film, but is directing it with a name Ramya.
For an industry already reeling under criticism for being removed from reality, name changes aren’t new. While it has been numerology and luck that has most often forced heroes and heroines to sign differently, certain actors have also adopted new names that do not instantly reveal their cultural origins. Diana opting for a name like Nayanthara (yeah, Nayan) or Jamshad opting for a name like 'Arya', are a few instances.
Rajinikanth, a name millions of fans willlight up on hearing, isn’t the superstar’s original name. Neither does his son-in-law Dhanush, use his real name Prabhu for films. Actors, actresses, even music directors, are no exceptions today.
It is the same hope, perhaps, that has forced actor Karan to be renamed Curran for his forthcoming project, Thambi Vettothi Sundaram. Promotional material for the film spells the actor‘s name as Curran instead of Karan.
sharadha@epmltd.com