Sonam slammed for changing name

Sonam with Anand after their wedding. Her decision to change her name post her marriage to businessman Anand Ahuja was criticised by many, but Bollywood actor Sonam Kapoor feels it is her choice to take her husband’s surname.

Kapoor got hitched to Ahuja on May 8 in a traditional Sikh wedding ceremony in Mumbai. Shortly after her marriage, the actor updated her name on social media accounts as ‘Sonam K Ahuja’.

The move did not go down well with many people who expressed their disappointment that a feminist icon like her resorted to patriarchy.

In a video interview from Cannes, where Kapoor walked the red carpet for cosmetic brand L’Oreal Paris, the actor said she has always been a feminist and the choice to change her name rests with her and no one else.

“Kapoor is also my father’s name, so it’s a man’s name anyway. I chose to keep both. Anand has also changed his name but nobody wrote about that. I just decided to do it on social media because that’s my platform, to say that I’ve made a choice,” she said.

“It’s my personal choice, nobody put a gun to my head. You should ask him [Anand], he has also changed his name and decided to add something as well.”

Ahuja also updated his name on Instagram, adding an ‘S’ before Ahuja.

The Neerja actor says neither her husband nor his family had asked her to change her name and neither did she ask her husband to do it. “The whole idea of feminism is to have equal opportunities and the choice to do what you want to do. So whether I want to or don’t want to change my name is my personal choice,” she said.