Did you know the real names of these 5 Tollywood bombshells?

Showbiz world has always been a strange arena when it came to interesting happenings and surprising things. Before entering into the film industry itself, several celebrities have changed their birth names due to various reasons; they might sound too ethnic or be too hard to pronounce or get confused with other actors of the same name. In a country like India, sentiments and numerology can also play a key role in the alteration of the birth name.

Coming to Tollywood, there are quite a few heroines who have rechristened themselves. While most north Indian divas adopt a suitable name which connects to the local sensibilities, other ladies twist it to make it sound more fashionable. There are plenty of female stars who have switched monikers, from Shilpa Shetty to Anushka Shetty, Nayanthara to Raai Laxmi and Simran.

Besides enthralling Bollywood viewers from the early 90s, Mangalore-born Shilpa Shetty is a popular face in regional cinema with several films across Telugu, Tamil and Kannada languages. The real name of this 43-year-old actress is Ashwini Shetty. Hailing from a Tuluva Bunt family, it was Shilpa’s mother who decided to change her name. Being an astrologer herself, she believed that the altered name would do wonders to her daughter’s career. Surprisingly, it did and the yoga guru became a household name with her arresting personality and solid acting chops.

The blonde bombshell changed her name from Lakshmi Rai to Raai Laxmi in 2014. “My family named me after the Goddess. But nobody calls me Lakshmi. People have always called me either Rai or Lakshmi Rai. My dad has been insisting for a long time that I change my name to Raai as it goes with my personality.”

Despite limited appearances in Tollywood, the gorgeous diva is a popular name in the Telugu states courtesy her scintillating screen-presence and alluring dance moves. After shaking her belly in a series of big-ticket films, the 29-year-old is portraying the titular role of a sexy school teacher (like a Sushmita Sen in ‘Main Hoon Na’) in her upcoming Telugu film titled ‘Where Is The Venkatalakshmi’. She will also enthral the viewers with the Telugu dubbed version of ‘Neeya 2’ titled ‘Nagakanya’.

Not many know that the real name of Anushka is Sweety Shetty. After bagging an opportunity to enter films, she decided to change her name and christened herself as 'Anushka'. The 37-year-old has the perfect blend of a sizzling personality, charismatic screen-presence and convincing acting skills. Considered as a talented actress who can carry the entire film on her shoulders and pull the audience into the theatre without depending on a bankable male lead, Anushka has done enough commercial potboilers to become a huge star down South and balanced her repertoire by also doing content-orientated films like ‘Vedam’, ‘Nanna’ and ‘Size Zero’.

A ‘Superstar’ tag is pretty rare for an actress especially in Indian cinema and Nayanthara has acquired it after a decade of hardwork, commitment and dedication in the Southern film industry. She is the present princess of Kollywood with successive super-hits in her kitty. Born as Diana Mariam Kurian in Bengaluru, the 34-year-old belle changed her name to Nayanthara before foraying into cinema. Appearing chubby during the initial part of her career, she sweated it out to get into perfect shape and from then on, there has been no stopping her. She is currently shooting for Chiranjeevi’s ‘Sye Raa’ which also stars Vijay Sethupathi and Amitabh Bachchan.

Born as Rishibala Naval in Mumbai, the glamourous lady altered her birth name to Simran before making her celluloid debut with the 1995 Hindi film ‘Sanam Harjai’ which was the first Indian movie to be shot in New Zealand. From the late 90s till the mid-2000s, the on-screen persona and charismatic personality of this 42-year-old actress had trembled the hearts of most youth across the Telugu territory. She was literally treated like a goddess in this part of South India with several blockbusters to her name opposite all the A-list stars. Mostly seen in supporting roles these days, Simran has recently essayed the female lead opposite Superstar Rajinikanth in Karthik Subbaraj’s ‘Petta’.