Did you know Kiara Advani changed her name from Alia on Salman Khan’s suggestion?

Kiara Advani took her first step towards a new phase of life with her wedding with Sidharth Malhotra on Tuesday. She looked gorgeous in her bridal avatar and the wedding pictures were nothing less than a dream. The actress entered Bollywood in 2014 but with this new name, as her birth name was something different. And this name change actually happened because of Salman Khan.

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Kiara’s original name was Alia

Today, Kiara Advani is a big and renowned name in the industry, but actually her real name was Alia Advani by birth. However, before entering the industry, she decided to change it to Kiara. In an earlier interview, Kiara had said, “My name has been Kiara since my debut in 2014. I didn’t want to confuse the audience with Alia Bhatt, an established superstar. It just felt like the right thing to do – to have your own identity. Why have two Alias?”

Salman Khan suggested Kiara Advani to change her name

While even Kiara felt the need of a new name, it was actually Salman Khan who convinced her to go ahead with it. In an episode of Feet Up with the Stars Season 2, the Shershaah actress had revealed, “Alia is my first name. Salman Khan suggested me to change it because of Alia Bhatt because there can’t be two actresses with the same name in Bollywood. He suggested the change, but ‘Kiara’ is the name that I chose. Now even my parents have started to call me Kiara.”

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Priyanka Chopra inspired Kiara’s name choice

The name ‘Kiara’ might be her own choice, but the inspiration for it came from Priyanka Chopra. The actress’ name is actually based on Priyanka’s character in the Ranbir Kapoor co-starrer Anjaana Anjaani. In an earlier interview, Kiara had shared, “The name, Kiara, was inspired from Priyanka Chopra’s movie Anjaana Anjaani, where she introduces herself as, ‘Hi, I’m Kiara.’ I thought, ‘What a beautiful name. If I have a daughter, I’ll call her Kiara’. But before that, I needed a name for myself. So, I took it on.“

Salman and Kiara connection

As for Salman, this isn’t the only connection between Kiara and him. Salman had once dated Kiara’s aunt Shaheen Jaffrey. And it was the actress’ mother who introduced Salman to Kiara. She had informed, “My mom knew Salman sir as they grew up together in Bandra. He would often tell my mother Genieveve Advani how one day he would be a star. They have been friends for the longest time and would go cycling together. She introduced my mausie Shaheen to him and Salman sir and Shaheen mausie dated each other long back. It may have possibly been their first relationship.”

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Today Kiara has achieved some high level of stardom with this new name. Thus, it is indeed quite lucky for her. She even got married recently, proving that even in personal life, this name is a Godsend. On the work front, Kiara is quite busy as she has SatyaPrem Ki Katha up next with Kartik Aaryan. She is also working with Ram Charan on RC 15.

Also Read: Kiara Advani’s wedding lehenga is all about Sidharth Malhotra and her love for roman architecture