On the whole, the entertainment industry is a supremely secular place. The children are free to adopt whatever faith they choose,” says a close family friend. And, in Shah Rukh's home, religious beliefs from Islam and Hinduism co-exist. “It was her choice to take on her husband's name. Shah Rukh Khan's wife, Gauri Chibber, also assumed the 'Khan' surname after marriage. She changed her name to Salma Khan after she married writer Salim Khan. Salman Khan's mother, Salma's maiden name was Sushila Charak. At the most, Nargis must have made the token gesture of adopting her husband's name and culture out of love.
However, Hinduism has no provision for conversion. When Sunil Dutt married Nargis, unconfirmed reports say Nargis converted to Hinduism and was re-christened Nirmala Dutt. Way back, when Kishore Kumar married Madhubala, he was 'officially' converted to Islam and renamed Karim Abdul, a name that no one knows the legendary singer by. In her case too, there was never any compulsion to change her name or religious belief. Sharmila's daughter-in-law, Kareena Kapoor, added a 'Khan' to her surname after her marriage to Saif Ali Khan. The entertainment industry has a long history of female entertainers refusing to change their names in order to get married. I've always been known as Sharmila Tagore.” I never used the name that was given to me. This ( the changing of the name) was a token gesture which I willingly made. It was a surprising move in the life of the actress, who had constantly broken all taboos and changed the image of the Hindi film heroine.īut as Sharmila explained to me, “There was no compulsion to do anything after marriage. In 1969, when she married the love of her life, the cricketing icon Mansoor Ali Khan, Sharmila Tagore was officially christened Ayesha Sultan.