Before Bollywood knew them, they were Bebo, Lolo, Chintu & Duggu

Before Bollywood gave them a name, they already had one. It just wasn’t the name we know. Kareena Kapoor did not begin life as Bebo, the star whose name could sell a film, fill a magazine cover or dominate a headline. She was simply Bebo at home. Karisma Kapoor was Lolo. Rishi Kapoor was Chintu. And somewhere much before Hrithik Roshan became Hrithik Roshan, he was Duggu.

It is a curious little corner of Bollywood history. The names that belonged to these people before the cameras arrived have somehow travelled with them through decades of fame. Some remained firmly inside the family. Others escaped into the public domain and became almost as recognisable as the names on the posters.

The story of Bebo and Lolo is perhaps the easiest place to start.

The two sisters didn’t sit around deciding that these would one day become names millions of people would use. Their father, Randhir Kapoor, simply wanted their names to rhyme. And so Karisma became Lolo and Kareena became Bebo. Simple as that.

Except that nobody could have known what those little family names would eventually become. “Bebo” today immediately conjures up Kareena Kapoor. But imagine going back to the years before Refugee, before the awards, before the celebrity interviews and before the carefully constructed public image. There was no Bebo the superstar yet. There was just a little girl being called Bebo by her family.

The same family had already been doing this for years. Rishi Kapoor was Chintu. That name has a particularly charming contradiction attached to it. The man who would grow up to become one of Hindi cinema’s most recognisable romantic heroes, the face of countless songs and one of the defining stars of his generation, carried a name that sounds almost deliberately un-star-like.

And he wasn’t alone. His brother Randhir was Dabboo, while their younger brother Rajiv was Chimpu.

For a family that eventually produced generations of actors, the Kapoors had an extraordinarily informal vocabulary for themselves. Then came another generation. Ranbir Kapoor, one of the family’s biggest stars, acquired another wonderfully unexpected name from his mother Neetu Kapoor: Raymond.

That is perhaps the best thing about these names. They weren’t designed to sound cool. They weren’t selected by a publicist. They didn’t have to work on a billboard. They only had to work at home.

The same is true of Hrithik Roshan’s Duggu. His father Rakesh Roshan was known as Guddu, and Hrithik’s childhood name followed that family sound. Years later, the little Duggu would become Hrithik Roshan, the star whose face, physique and dancing would turn him into an entirely different kind of Bollywood phenomenon. But to his family, apparently, the transformation was never quite complete.

And then there is Amitabh Bachchan. It is difficult to imagine the man behind Deewaar, Sholay, Zanjeer and a career that has stretched across generations being called anything other than Amitabh Bachchan. Yet, as a child, he was Munna.

That is what makes this little collection of names so oddly fascinating. The public sees the finished product. The nickname often belongs to the unfinished person.

Before the superstar acquired the gravitas, the style, the mythology and eventually the carefully cultivated public identity, there was usually a child somewhere being called something wonderfully ordinary.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was Gullu. Alia Bhatt was Aloo. Shahid Kapoor became Sasha.

And these aren’t merely pieces of Bollywood trivia. They are tiny reminders that celebrity identities are acquired. They are built over time. The person comes first. The star comes later.

Sometimes, though, the old name refuses to leave. Rajesh Khanna became Kaka. Sanjay Dutt became Baba. Govinda became Chi Chi. Jackie Shroff became Jaggu Dada.

Here the journey went in the opposite direction. The names that once belonged to the private world somehow became part of the public mythology. And perhaps that is why the idea of a Bollywood nickname is more interesting than it first appears.

Behind every Bebo, Lolo, Chintu or Duggu is a time when nobody knew there would ever be a Kareena Kapoor, Karisma Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor or Hrithik Roshan.

There was just Bebo. Lolo. Chintu. Duggu. And then Bollywood happened.