Actresses who changed their screen names after debuting under a different name

Recently, actress Rashmi Gopinath, who debuted in Kollywood with Yogi Babu-starrer Cocktail, had revealed that she has changed her name to Niviksha! The actress had explained that people weren't clearly pronouncing her name, and calling her Reshmi and Reshma, prompting this movie. And of course, numerology, too, played its part.

Rashmi is only the latest in the list of Kollywood actresses who debuted under a different screen name but changed their names later for reasons of their own. We look at a few of those actresses...

One of the most popular actresses who changed her name while making her debut in Tamil. Amala, who had kick-started her acting career in Malayalam with her actual name, debuted in Kollywood as Anaka, a name suggested by Sami, the director of her first film, Sindhu Samaveli. However, when the film failed, she decided to revert to her original name, as she felt changing her name to Anaka had brought her bad luck.

Actress Sunainaa had tasted success with her debut film, Kadhalil Vizhunthen, in which she was credited under her original name. She also managed to get critical acclaim for her performance in Neerparavai. But in 2013, the actress announced that she was changing her name to Anusha as a few pundits had advised her parents to go with this name. However, the actress decided to go back to her actual name, with an additional 'a' at the end when the new name failed to work any magic.

Divya Spandana has been credited under not one or two but four screen names! While she debuted in her mother tongue Kannada under her original name, she went with Spandana for her Telugu debut, Abhimanyu. And when it was time to making her Tamil debut — Kuththu, in 2014 — Divya Spandana chose to go with Ramya. She even came to be known as Kuththu Ramya in Kollywood. However, in 2007, she chose to go by Divya Spandana for Polladhavan. But the very next year, she was credited only as Divya in Vaaranam Aayiram, though in her later Tamil films, she became Divya Spandana once more!

When Vasundhara made her debut, in the 2006 film Vattaram, she was Adhisaya. However, she decided to go with her actual name Vasundhara in films like Peraanmai and Thenmerku Paruvakaatru. And of late, she has chosen to be credited as Vasundhara Kashyap in her films.

Adhiti Menon debuted in Kollywood under her original name in the film Pattathari. But with her career failing to take off, with films like Kalavaani Mappillai flopping at the box office, the actress decided to opt for a name change. She is now going by the name Mirnaa.