Akshay Kumar reveals why he gave up his original name Rajiv Bhatia

The team of Naam Shabana -producer Akshay Kumar, actors Taapsee Pannu and Manoj Bajpayee, co-producer Neeraj Pandey and director Shivam Nair - visited HT City on Monday to meet winners of the Stars In The City Contest. There Akshay revealed why he changed his name from Rajiv Hari Om Bhatia to Akshay Kumar.

When a fan asked Akshay what made him do it, he replied, "No one has ever asked me this question. My first film was Aaj (1987) which was directed by Mahesh Bhatt and starred Kumar Gaurav.

The name of Gaurav's character was Akshay. I had a 4.5 second role in it and I would only observe Gaurav and his acting. I



don't know what happened but one day I just went to the court and got my name changed."

The actor said that though he was a nobody at that time, he got a visiting cards made with the name 'Akshay Kumar' and went looking for work.

"I don't know why I changed my name .... I just went to the Bandra East court and got it done. Main kucch bhi nahi tha us time pe phir bhi maine visiting card banwaye. Then I went out to get work, time was in my favour, and I got films after that," said Akshay.

During the session, the audience also got a self defence lesson from Taapsee and Akshay.