Apart from skills in acting, unique names also seems to play an important role in shaping up a career in the entertainment industry.
While many Bollywood celebs, including Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan and many others, have changed their names to make a mark in the industry, many Malayalam celebs have also done the same before or soon after entering the industry.
Almost all yesteryear and late actors in Malayalam were known with their stage names, compared to the new generation actors of the industry.
It is said that actor Thikkurissi Sukumaran Nair had suggested names for several actors including Sathyan and Prem Nazir.
While Prem Nazir's actual name was Abdul Kader, late superstar Satyan's stage name was shortened from his original name Satyanesan Nadar.
Madhu is the stage name of "Chemmeen" (1965) star Madhavan Nair while Jayan's actual name was Krishnan Nair.
Check out the original names of some Malayalam actors below:
- Bahadur — PK Kunjaloo
- Kuthiravattom Pappu — Padmalakshan
- Sankaradi — Chandrasekara Menon
- Adoor Bhasi — Bhaskaran Nair
- Sheela — Clara
- Sarada — Saraswathy
- KPAC Lalitha —Maheshwari
- Mammootty — Muhammad Kutty
- Manian Pillai Raju — Sudhir
- Urvashi — Kavitha Ranjini
- Dileep — Gopalakrishnan
- Revathy — Asha Kelunni
- Parvathy — Ashwathy
- Navya Nair — Dhanya Nair
- Nayanthara —Diana Mariam Kurian
- Bhavana — Karthika Menon
- Bhamaa — Rekhitha Kurup
