Mumbai: Actor Manoj Bajpayee has won plaudits for his role in Raj and Krishna DK’s web series The Family Man season 2 which was dropped on June 4 on Amazon Prime Video. He basking in the glory of his super successful season 2. But do you know much about his real family?
Well, Manoj Bajpayee is married to actress Neha Bajpayee, whose original name is Shabana Raza. The couple are parents to a 10-year-old daughter Ava.
Do you know Shabana changed her name before entering the glam world, but she was not happy about it? An old interview of the actress where she confessed that she was ‘forced’ to change her name to Neha before stepping into Bollywood is going viral online.
In her 2008 interview with Rediff, Shabana said, “I was never Neha. I was always Shabana. I was forced into changing my name too. I was not okay with it at all. My parents proudly named me Shabana. There was no need to change it, but nobody listened to me. I have matured a lot since I entered the industry. I was very apprehensive about everything before but I understand better now.”
It was only in 2008 when Shabana Raza managed feature with her original name for Sanjay Gupta’s Alibaug.
She also spoke about how nobody would listen to her when she wanted to go back to her first name, Shabana added, “That is why working with Sanjay and the whole team of Alibaug has been the best experience of my life. I told Sanjay that I want to go with my real name, and he was okay with it. I had lost my identity and now, I got it back.”
Shabana Raza made her Bollywood debut with Kareeb opposite Bobby Deol in 1998. Her other popular movies include, Hrithik Roshan’s Fiza and Ajay Devgn’s Hogi Pyaar Ki Jeet. She has also worked in Tamil and Kannada films. Shabana was last seen in ‘Acid Factory’ which was released in 2009 co-starring her hubby Manoj Bajpayee.