What’s in a name?
Rani Mukerji, Aditya Chopra take time off to decide whether she’ll change her name in her film’s credits
First they were the subject of speculation and rumours about their alleged relationship. And even though film-maker Aditya Chopra and actor Rani Mukerji laid that buzz to rest by getting married right in the middle of the shoot for her next film, Mardaani, they’ve now found themselves facing more speculation.
The buzz is that like her peers Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Kareena Kapoor Khan, will Rani take Aditya’s surname for her next film, which is produced by the Chopras banner.
“Since it will be Rani’s first release after marriage, everyone wants to know if the actress will retain her original surname in the opening credits or change it to either Mukerji-Chopra or just Chopra,” says an insider. Furthermore, the source reveals that both Aditya and Rani have been discussing the same for some time now, but have not arrived at a decision yet. “They have asked the team [which is working on the film] to give them some more time to take the final call on it. The team has been asked to continue with the other work, except the credits. The production house has been maintaining absolute secrecy about the project as of now,” adds the insider.
Interestingly, last year, veteran actor Shatrughan Sinha had referred to the actor as ‘Rani Chopra’ which had snowballed into a controversy. Later, he said in an interview that he had “only stated the truth”. The film’s official spokesperson refused to comment on the name change.