B-town's namesakes!

What’s in a name? asked Shakespeare. Well, quite a lot one could argue. In showbiz a name speaks for itself.
So when two people in the same field share a name, the confusion often leads to many mishaps — some amusing and some not so amusing. Here’s a look at some showbiz folks who not only share the same name, but also end up being part of some fun and whole lot of confusion.The joke’s on them. Sometimes literally!
Akshay Kumar and Akshaye Khanna
By now, everyone knows the difference between the Khiladi Kumar and Vinod Khanna’s son. It’s said that Vinod Khanna actually added an extra ‘e’ to his son’s name when he was joining the Hindi film industry as there was already an actor called Akshay (who ironically was Rajeev Hari Om Bhatia in real life). In spite of the extra ‘e’, both the actors are often confused for the another. Recently Akki received a barrage of SMSes from an assistant director informing him of shoot timings of a film etc. Though initially puzzled, the Khiladi Kumar finally realised that the smses were meant for Akshaye who also happens to be his co-star in Thank You and Tees Maar Khan. “I figured this particular assistant had fed my number against Akshaye’s name in his cell phone. The messages have been coming religiously, many times. However, I’m now wondering that if I’m getting all of Akshaye’s shooting alerts, how is he managing to reach his shooting on time? And I don’t know how many of my messages are being delivered to him,” Kumar was quoted as saying.
Raima Sen, Rimmi Sen and Reema Sen
The Sen sisters (Riya and Raima) entered Bollywood and at the same time another Bong babe with the same surname made her debut. Industry folks and common junta often cannot distinguish between the elder Sen sibling Raima, and actor Reema Sen. Then entered another Sen, Rimmi and added to the confusion. Reema confesses to having received letters meant for Rimmi and vice versa. The Sen sisters on the other hand pass on Reema’s number to people who call them up by mistake and Reema does the same. But none of the ‘Sen’sational women lose their cool, as they are all friends. It’s all in the surname after all.
Karan Grover and Karan Singh Grover
Both are young, happening and popular actors on the small screen. While Karan Grover is popular for Woh Rehne Waali Mehlon Ki and Yahan main Ghar Ghar Kheli, his namesake is popular as Dr Armaan from Dill Mill Gayee. Girls flock to the former hoping to catch a glimpse of their fave Dr Armaan only to be disappointed. Even filmmakers have confused between the two actors.
Farah Khan and Farah Khan Ali
There’s always been a genuine confusion between the two Farahs. One is the queen of Bollywood masala flicks and the other Sanjay Khan’s first born and a jewellery designer. Even close friends often confuse between the two ladies. Director Farah Khan claims that people call her up with requests to design jewellery for them and even send her invitations and gifts meant for the other Farah. Close friend SRK often ends up calling Sanjay Khan’s daughter, thinking it’s his close buddy, the director! The jewellery designer on her part too faces a lot of these confusions. Apart from producers, even aspiring models and actors call her up asking her for breaks in her film. Finally, to put an end to the confusion, the designer has now added her husband’s surname to her name, Farah Khan Ali.
Negar Khan & Nigaar Z Khan
While one is a Swedish import, known for her raunchy avatar and for creatingd a storm with her provocative dance moves in the music video Chadti Jawani, the other is a famous vamp on TV shows. Both these ladies have often been mistaken for each another. This prompted the telly actor to use ‘Z’ as her middle name to avoid confusion with the item girl. The telly star admits that when model Negar entered Iss Jungle Se Mujhe Bachchao, a newspaper published her picture and said she was part of the show!
Toshi Sabri & Tochi Rainaa
While both have different spellings, their names are the same and they belong to the music industry. While Tochi Rainaa is famous for his songs in Dev D and A Wednesday, Toshi Sabri rose to popularity after participating in a music reality show. A mere ‘c’ and ‘s’ in the spellings of their names were not enough to dispel the confusion. Rainaa claims to have lost out on a lot of opportunities due to Sabri. “I have got more than 50 calls from event managers who were looking for Toshi to sing my songs,” Rainaa said and he even went on to sue a website for wrongly giving credit for songs sung by him to the Sabri lad. He even claims to have lost out on crores of rupees due to the confusion. And all the added stress even landed him in hospital!
Rajeev Khandelwal (actor) & Rajeev Khandelwal (production team, Balaji telefilms)
While Rajeev Khandelwal the actor stole the hearts of the fairer sex in his debut show, Kahin Toh Hoga, he also created ripples in the industry when the walked out of the serial. At that time, everyone knew that one couldn’t invite the ire of the czarina of soaps, Ekta Kapoor for fear of being isolated in the industry. But Khandelwal and his mentor went head-to-head and there was no love lost between the two. So it came as a surprise to many when they saw his name being featured in the credits of a few Ekta Kapoor shows. Stories of a patch up between the warring parties began to circulate with people speculating that Khandelwal is trying to get back into the good books of Ekta by helping her out in production matters. Finally, Ekta put a rest to the rumours by saying that the Rajeev Khandelwal in her production team is actually a namesake of the actor, and is a happily married man with kids.
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