Tollywood stars and their almost forgotten original names

You would be surprised to hear that the names, by which most of you knew your favourite celebs, aren't at all their real names. These Bengali actors were born with names, that in time got replaced with popular screen names which made them famous. Here is a list of the pre-fame names of some famous Tollywood celebrities:

Being an ordinary clerk in the Calcutta Port Commission, Uttam Kumar’s early efforts on screen fell into such bad weather that he seriously thought of packing-up and returning to his 9-to-5 routine. Interestingly, fate had some other plans. Arun Chatterjee, Arun Kumar, Uttam Chatterjee- the iconic actor kept changing his screen names until the release of 'Agni Pariksha' (1954). The rest is history!

This handsome hunk of Bengali cinema was born with the name Pushparag Roy Chowdhury, which was changed to Tota when he stepped into the Bengali industry. The popular actor amazed the audience by taking up many challenging roles over the years. He even has a few Bollywood movies in his kitty. Tota won BFJA award for his excellent performance in 'Chokher Bali'.

Every Bengali movie buff will instantly recognize him as the silver screen's Byomkesh Bakshi, Kabeer from ‘Rajkahini', Kashinath Kundu from 'Zulfiqar' or ‘Uma’s father, but very few people actually know that Jisshu’s original name is Biswaroop Sengupta. It's his character strength, struggle, simplicity and impeccable talent that make him a true hero. He is also appreciated for his perfect family man image.

He will impress you with his 'boy-next-door’ charm and sweet smile. Despite being a new guy in the Bengali industry, Bonny Sengupta has already made the teenage girls crazy for him. Very few know he is the grandson of the late actor Sukhen Das. Did you know his original name is Anupriyo? However, as per reports, producer Srikanta Mohta adviced him to use the nickname Bonny as his screen name in his debut film 'Borbaad'.

Dev grew up in Mumbai as Deepak Adhikari and could have continued as the same but destiny had something different planned for him. Touted as one of the most commercially successful heroes of Kolkata film industry, Dev’s career started in 2006 with his debut film ‘Agnishapath’ but it turned out to be a huge flop. That failure didn’t destroy his career as his comeback literally resurrected his status with some of the highest earning box-office hits of all time.

Many of his female fans go gaga over this name, but the 'Abhimaan' star wasn't popular as Jeet always. During his struggle period at the start of his acting career, he was known as Jeetendra Madnani in his colony. He then made his debut in Haranath Chakraborty's romantic drama 'Sathi' which turned out to be a blockbuster and introduced a new star named Jeet to Tollywood.

Chiranjeet Chakraborty has been one of the most successful actors of his time. He started his career as a newsreader on TV and went on to give commercial hits like 'Sandhan', 'Shatru', 'Prem O Paap', 'Pratik', 'Agnitrishna' and many more. Although popularly known as Chiranjeet, his original name is Deepak Chakraborty. People who are close to him still address him as Deepak.