50 Fun Facts About Indian Celebrities

Which actor's parents first planned to name him Inquilaab, after the slogan 'Inquilab Zindabad'?

Amitabh Bachchan owes his name to the poet Sumitranandan Pant, who suggested it to his father, the poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan.

Which Tamil superstar, born Shivaji Rao Gaikwad, was a Bangalore bus conductor before acting?

Rajinikanth worked as a conductor for the Bangalore Transport Service, and Forbes India later named him the most influential Indian of 2010.

Which future India captain worked as a travelling ticket examiner at Kharagpur from 2001 to 2003?

MS Dhoni was a Travelling Ticket Examiner with South Eastern Railway, having kept wicket for Commando cricket club and Central Coal Fields in the 1990s.

Which actress, later the star of Main Hoon Na, was the first Indian crowned Miss Universe, in 1994?

Sushmita Sen won the crown at 18, having just taken the Femina Miss India title, and was also the first Bengali woman to become Miss Universe.

Which batter made his Test debut against Pakistan in Karachi in November 1989, aged just 16?

Sachin Tendulkar was 16 years and 205 days old on debut, and went on to represent India for over 24 years.

Which Jamshedpur-born actress was the first South Asian to headline a US network drama, in Quantico?

Priyanka Chopra played FBI recruit Alex Parrish in Quantico from 2015 to 2018, winning a People's Choice Award for Favourite Actress in a New TV Series.

Which action star, born Rajiv Hari Om Bhatia, worked as a chef and waiter in Bangkok before acting?

Akshay Kumar studied Muay Thai in Bangkok, and in 2010 hosted India's first MasterChef series on Star Plus.

Which actress made her Hollywood debut opposite Vin Diesel in xXx: Return of Xander Cage (2017)?

Deepika Padukone took the role straight after Bajirao Mastani, the Bhansali epic named Best Film at the 61st Filmfare Awards.

Which Madurai-born engineer became chief executive of Google in 2015 and of its parent Alphabet in 2019?

Sundar Pichai, born Pichai Sundararajan, was Google's product chief under Larry Page before being named CEO in August 2015.

Which British actress, born in Hong Kong, married Vicky Kaushal at a fort in Rajasthan in December 2021?

Katrina Kaif was born with her mother's surname Turcotte, and lived in China, Japan and France before settling in London.

Which singer, named Hema at birth, was renamed after Latika, a character in one of her father's plays?

Lata Mangeshkar sang the patriotic 'Aye Mere Watan Ke Logo' in the presence of Jawaharlal Nehru in January 1963, in the shadow of the Sino-Indian War.

Which actress, born Bhanurekha Ganesan to star Gemini Ganesan, won a National Award for Umrao Jaan?

Rekha started as a child actress in Inti Guttu (1958) and Rangula Ratnam (1966) before moving to Hindi films, where she is famously reluctant to give interviews.

Which Hindi film legend was born Muhammad Yusuf Khan in Peshawar's Qissa Khawani Bazaar?

Dilip Kumar's childhood house in Peshawar was declared a national heritage monument by Pakistan's government in 2014.

Which industrialist led his family group from 1991 to 2012, buying Tetley, Corus and Jaguar Land Rover?

Ratan Tata succeeded JRD Tata as chairman of Tata Sons in 1991 and came back as interim chairman from October 2016 to February 2017.

Which Reliance Industries chairman lives in Antilia, a 27-storey private tower in Mumbai?

Mukesh Ambani's Antilia was valued at US$1 billion, the world's most expensive private residence when built, and needs a staff of about 600 to run.

Which composer was born Dileep Kumar Rajagopala in Madras in 1967?

A. R. Rahman is nicknamed the 'Mozart of Madras' and 'Isai Puyal', or Musical Storm, and in December 2024 became Honorary President of the Trinity Laban conservatoire.

Which singer was unofficially banned by All India Radio and Doordarshan from May 1976 during the Emergency?

Kishore Kumar was blacklisted by broadcasting minister Vidya Charan Shukla after Sanjay Gandhi asked him to sing at a Congress rally and he refused.

Which actress debuted aged four in the 1967 Tamil film Kandhan Karunai?

Sridevi, cited as Indian cinema's first female superstar, went straight from child roles to heroine without, by her own account, ever experiencing school or college life.

Which actor's charity Being Human sells T-shirts and other products to help the underprivileged?

Salman Khan also launched SKBH Productions in 2011, with profits from its films donated to the Being Human organisation.

Which shooter's two Paris 2024 bronzes made her the first Indian since independence to win two medals at one Olympics?

Manu Bhaker took 10 m air pistol bronze, the first Olympic medal by an Indian woman shooter, then another in the mixed team event with Sarabjot Singh.

Which tennis player's bronze at Atlanta 1996 was India's first individual Olympic medal in 44 years?

Leander Paes beat Fernando Meligeni for the medal and, through Paris 2024, remained the only Indian to win an Olympic tennis medal.

Which Ahmedabad-born tycoon dropped out of school at 16 and began as a diamond sorter in Mumbai in 1978?

Gautam Adani ran his elder brother's plastics unit in Ahmedabad from 1981, importing PVC before founding his own group in 1988.

Which Infosys co-founder, who began with ₹10,000 lent by his wife in 1981, is Rishi Sunak's father-in-law?

Narayana Murthy's daughter Akshata married Rishi Sunak in 2009, thirteen years before Sunak became British prime minister.

Which Wipro founder-chairman left Stanford at 21 to run his late father's vegetable-oil company?

Azim Premji turned Western Indian Vegetable Products into an IT giant, and in 2013 signed the Giving Pledge with a $2.2 billion gift to his education foundation.

Which actor won both Filmfare Best Debut and Best Actor for Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai (2000), directed by his father?

Hrithik Roshan is the only actor to take Best Debut and Best Actor at both Filmfare and IIFA for a single film.

Which actor's television debut was hosting Satyamev Jayate, a talk show on social issues, in May 2012?

Aamir Khan's Satyamev Jayate ran until 2014 and ranks among the highest-rated Indian productions on the Chinese review site Douban.

Which superstar made his television debut as cadet Abhimanyu Rai in the 1989 army serial Fauji?

Shah Rukh Khan had first been cast in Lekh Tandon's serial Dil Dariya, but production delays let Fauji reach screens first.

Which Student of the Year (2012) debutante starred opposite Gal Gadot in Netflix's Heart of Stone?

Alia Bhatt had first appeared on screen as a child in the 1999 thriller Sangharsh, thirteen years before her first leading role.

Which actress, daughter of Randhir and Babita, won Filmfare Best Actress as Geet in Jab We Met (2007)?

Kareena Kapoor debuted in Refugee in 2000 and established herself a year later in Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, the top-grossing drama of 2001.

Which actor, raised in Tonk and Jaipur, played the adult Pi Patel in Ang Lee's Life of Pi?

Irrfan Khan also appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man, Jurassic World and Inferno, after training at Delhi's National School of Drama from 1984.

Which Tamil actor-politician won a President's gold medal at age six for Kalathur Kannamma (1960)?

Kamal Haasan starred in five more films as a child after that award, and is the youngest of four siblings including actor Charuhasan.

Which actress was born Mumtaz Jehan Begum Dehlavi in Delhi in 1933?

Madhubala, nicknamed the 'Venus of the Indian screen', was photographed at her Bombay flat by Life magazine's James Burke for a proposed feature on Asian 'Movie Queens'.

Which actor scored 17 consecutive box-office hits between 1969 and 1971?

Rajesh Khanna, Hindi cinema's 'first superstar', entered films by winning the 1965 All India Talent Contest run by United Producers and Filmfare, and debuted in Aakhri Khat in 1966.

Which actor played the dual role of Amarendra and Mahendra in the two Baahubali films?

Prabhas had made his Hindi debut in 2014 with the dance number 'Punjabi Mast' in Action Jackson, a year before Baahubali: The Beginning.

Whose 'Why This Kolaveri Di' was the first Indian music video to pass 100 million views on YouTube?

Dhanush later joined Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans and Ana de Armas in the Russo brothers' Netflix thriller The Gray Man.

Which director, son of screenwriter V. Vijayendra Prasad, made both Baahubali films and RRR?

S. S. Rajamouli's three biggest films all rank among India's 15 highest-grossing ever, with Baahubali 2 the first Indian film to pass ₹10 billion.

Which actor worked a year as a chemist in Vadodara before starring in Anurag Kashyap's Gangs of Wasseypur?

Nawazuddin Siddiqui holds a chemistry degree from Gurukul Kangri University in Haridwar, and first drew notice in Kashyap's Black Friday (2004).

Which singer from Jiaganj in West Bengal began as a contestant on the 2005 reality show Fame Gurukul?

Arijit Singh was Spotify's most-streamed artist in India every year from 2019 to 2025, yet still lives mainly in his small hometown rather than Mumbai.

Which Faridabad-born singer won a National Film Award for the title song of Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003)?

Sonu Nigam has recorded over 900 Kannada songs, and his score for Jal (2014) made the Oscars' preliminary list for Best Original Score.

Which singer-actor became the first Indian Punjabi artist to perform at Coachella, in April 2023?

Diljit Dosanjh made his Hindi film debut in Udta Punjab (2016), winning Filmfare's Best Male Debut, and sang 'Born to Shine' on Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show in 2024.

Which Indian classical musician, a four-time Grammy winner, is the father of jazz singer Norah Jones?

Ravi Shankar also scored the 1982 blockbuster Gandhi, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score.

Which Carnatic singer from Madurai was the first Indian to perform at the UN General Assembly, in 1966?

M. S. Subbulakshmi, known as Kunjamma to her family, was also the first Indian musician to receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award, in 1974.

Which India batter married actress Athiya Shetty, daughter of Suniel Shetty, in January 2023?

KL Rahul, born Kannaur Lokesh Rahul in Bangalore, grew up in Surathkal near Mangalore, where both of his parents were professors.

Which opener from Sangli was the first Indian to score a century in all three formats of women's cricket?

Smriti Mandhana has won four ICC awards, including Women's Cricketer of the Year in 2018 and 2021, and completed her set of centuries with a T20I hundred against England in June 2025.

Which all-rounder won an Audi 100 as 'Champion of Champions' at the 1985 World Championship of Cricket?

Ravi Shastri made 182 runs and took eight wickets in the tournament, and later served as India's head coach from 2017 until the 2021 T20 World Cup.

Which shuttler from Hisar won India's first Olympic badminton medal, a bronze at London 2012?

Saina Nehwal was also the first Indian to reach a BWF World Championships final and the first to win a Super Series title.

Which athlete, schooled in Panipat, became India's youngest individual Olympic champion at Tokyo 2020?

Neeraj Chopra had thrown a world under-20 record of 86.48 m to win the 2016 World U20 title in Bydgoszcz, and in 2025 became the first Indian past 90 m.

Which Ghaziabad-born actress won Miss Universe 2000 in Cyprus, then toured 42 countries as titleholder?

Lara Dutta had already won Miss Intercontinental 1997, three years before the bigger crown, and has since worked mainly in Hindi films and series.

Which Chandigarh-raised model won Miss Universe 2021 in Eilat, Israel, while still a master's student?

Harnaaz Sandhu had won the regional Miss Chandigarh title in 2017, and spent two childhood years in England before returning to India.

Which beauty queen from Rohtak, crowned in Sanya in 2017, debuted as Sanyogita in Samrat Prithviraj?

Manushi Chhillar was crowned by Puerto Rico's Stephanie Del Valle on 18 November 2017, and later appeared in The Great Indian Family and Bade Miyan Chote Miyan.