Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan has been in the news for the last few days for the film ‘Kalki 2898 AD’ directed by Nag Ashwin. Whoever saw this film was impressed by Big B’s acting. On the other hand, Big B has also started preparing for the next season of the quiz based reality show ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’, which will soon knock among the audience. Like Amitabh Bachchan’s acting, his style and personality, his surname ‘Bachchan’ is also different and most special. But, do you know what is Big B’s real surname? Amitabh Bachchan’s real surname is ‘Srivastava’. Yes, Bollywood superstar Amitabh’s surname is not ‘Bachchan’ but ‘Srivastava’, but his surname was changed much before his entry into the industry. How and why did all this happen, let us tell you the whole story behind it, that too not from our side but from Big B himself.

Why did Amitabh Bachchan change his surname?

Amitabh Bachchan himself had once revealed the story behind changing his surname. He had once told the story behind changing his surname in his show Kaun Banega Crorepati and long before this, he had also told the story behind changing his surname in an interview. He himself revealed the secret of changing his name and told that his surname was the gift of his father Harivansh Rai Bachchan, who himself was a well-known poet.

Amitabh Bachchan had told the story of changing the surname

While talking about this interesting story, Big B had told that his surname is the product of his father Harivansh Rai Bachchan’s thinking. Talking about this, Big B had said- ‘You will not be able to know what our caste is from our surname. And Babuji did this deliberately. However, Babuji himself is from a Kayastha family of Uttar Pradesh and he married into a Sikh family, with our mother. When the time came for my admission in school and he was asked what his surname was, he wrote Bachchan instead of Srivastava. For the first time, he made his pen name his surname.’

Harivansh Rai Bachchan did not believe in casteism

Along with this, Big B also told that his father i.e. Harivansh Rai Bachchan did not believe in casteism, so he decided to change his surname. Big B further says- ‘My father did not believe in casteism. He never believed in casteism. So I consider myself very lucky that I am the first member of this family who was born and grew up with the Bachchan surname.’ Not only this, Big B also mentioned this anecdote during an episode of KBC.

Not only surname, name also changed

However, not only Big B’s surname, his real name was also something else. Just like his surname was changed, he later changed his name as well. Amitabh Bachchan’s real name was Inquilab. Very few people know that when Big B was born, his parents named him Inquilab Srivastava. But, later on the advice of poet Sumitranandan Pant, Harivansh Rai Bachchan changed his son’s name to Amitabh and gave his surname as his surname, after which Big B became Amitabh Bachchan from Inquilab Srivastava.