When Dilip Kumar asked Asha Parekh should change her name to Asha Pari: ‘It sounds like an ad for a mill’

Before Asha Parekh's debut, Dilip Kumar and Sashadhar Mukherjee suggested that she should change her name to Asha Pari.

Asha Parekh was recently honoured with a Dadasaheb Phalke award. (Photo: Express Archives)

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Asha Parekh, who was honoured with a Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2022, was a popular film actor in the 1960s. She made her film debut with the 1959 film Dil Deke Dekho which turned out to be a big hit but shortly before the release of the film, producer Sashadhar Mukherjee and actor Dilip Kumar proposed that she should change her name.

During an appearance on The Anupam Kher Show, Asha recalled that it was proposed that her name should be changed to Asha Pari. “These guys would sit together every evening at Filmalaya. One day, they said Asha Parekh sounds like an odd name, it sounds like an advertisement for a mill. They said let’s change her name, let’s make it Asha Pari,” she shared.

“When they told me, I said Asha Pari sounds so odd. My mother said no, we’ll keep it Asha Parekh only. Then we told Mukherjee saab that we won’t change the name. It is Asha Parekh and it will remain Asha Parekh only,” she recalled.

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Asha Parekh wasn’t the only actor who was told to change her name. Waheeda Rehman was also told that she needed to change her name but she stuck to her ground and retained the name she was born with.

In the earlier days of Hindi cinema, having a screen name wasn’t very uncommon. Dilip Kumar, Ashok Kumar and many other stars of that era took on screen names. Dilip Kumar was born as Yusuf Khan and Ashok Kumar was born as Kumudlal Ganguly. Even contemporary stars like Akshay Kumar and Kiara Advani changed their name for the screen. Akshay Kumar was born as Rajiv Bhatia and Kiara Advani was born as Alia Advani.

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