Namesake trouble
V. Gangadhar

SAY, who was that Tamil actor bloke who shot at and wounded MGR on the jaw in the 1950’s? Wasn’t it some Radha? No, not the suave and good looking M.K Radha who was under contract to Gemini studios but the wild looking, Dravida Kazhagam stalwart, M.R.Radha who had a political grudge against MGR?

That is the story of Radha & Radha. Almost the same name, but different people though in the same industry. What is in a name, you may ask? Everything, if the names are similar sounding, leading to confusion. Recently, actress Amrita Rao drew flak from the media for her ‘bold’ role in the film, Girl Friend, though the role was actually played by Amrita Arora.

Some years back, the sub editor in a magazine corrected the name of music director Nashad to Naushad when I commented on his composition, ‘Tasvver banata hoon, tasvver nahin banti’. The sub editor, obviously was aware only of the more famous Naushad and not Nashad who had composed music for films like Baradari, Nagma and so on. The confusion was due to names sounding similar.

Similar sounding names of famous people do not create much confusion. No one would mistake Dilip Kumar with Ashok Kumar or Kishore Kumar. Of course, people with similar names may be totally different in everything. Take the Ganesans from the South. While Sivaji Ganesan was the acknowledged thespian and (despite his loud style and overacting) compared to Marlon Brando, Gemini Ganesan was more romantic and lived up to his reputation by marrying co-stars Pushpavalli (Rekha’s mother), Savitri and then as the fourth bride a nurse when he was touching 80. Truly a romantic.

Confusion galore: The Poojas (from top) Bhatt, Bedi and Batra

The confusion is more when the similar sounding names are of not-so-famous showbiz people. Pankaj Kapoor was the TV personality, the carrot-chewing private detective Karamchand in the TV serial of the same name while Pankaj Parashar was the ‘forgettable’actor with roles in films like Insaf ka Tarazu.

Can you get confused between Vimi, Simi and Kimi? Vimi acted in a few films like Humraz, Simi, every schoolboy’s dream teacher in Mera Naam Joker, is still around with her gushy-mushy Rendezvous on TV while Kimi (Ketkar) was the dare-bare actress in Hum swaying to the tune, Jumma Chumma de de. Today’s Mallika Sherawat is ready to bare all in revealing roles, not like Mallika Sarabhai, a Bharatnatyam expert and a management graduate, who was offended by her dance director insisting, "Chhati hilana" in her maiden Hindi film with Sunil Dutt. Wisely she switched over to Gujarati films.

The Puris (top) Amrish and Om

"Oh, for a dose of Basuda’s films," sighed a friend. "Such clean fun and entertainment." Which Basuda, I asked. "O, Basu Bhattacharya, the director of Chit Chor, Rajnigandha and Chhotisi Baat. My friend had got his ‘Basudas’ wrong, He was referring to the films of Basu Chatterjee while the Basuda he mentioned was known for more serious films like Teesri Kasam, Anubhav, Avishkzar, Grahaparvesh and Aastha.

Is there a shortage of names in film industry? Why should the Bhatt babe, the Batra babe and the Bedi babe have the same name, ‘Pooja’ and confuse everyone? While one ‘Kim’ entered and disappeared from Bollywood, we now have a Kim Sharma. Theatre producer and director Feroz Khan (Gandhi vs Mahatma) once told me that people in the US approached him for autographs and congratulated him on films like Qurbani and Dharmatma. They mistook him for filmstar, Feroze Khan. Such confusion was possible with respect to stars Om Puri, Amrish Puri and the late Om Shiv Puri, actress Isha Koppikar and the new entrant, Isha Shravani making her debut in Subash Ghai’s Kisna with Vivek Oberoi.

Who was the better villain’s sidekick, Manmohan or Mac Mohan? Between the two, Farah and Farah Khan, who was the star and who was the dance director? Who was the better imitator of the late K.L.Saigal, C.H.Atma or Chandru Atma? We all know about the famous father-son music directors, S.D.Burman and R.D.Burman, but how many know of a third composer, B.D. Burman (Char Diwari)

How to avoid such confusion? Can one do what the late British-born action hero did when he landed at Hollywood? He changed his name, James Stewart to Stewart Granger because there was already a James Stewart in the industry.

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