Ajitabh Bachchan, younger brother of megastar Amitabh Bachchan, recently shared the fascinating origin of their family name. He revealed that their father, celebrated poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan, deliberately replaced their original surname “Srivastava" with “Bachchan" as a symbolic stand against India’s entrenched caste system.

Harivansh Rai, who belonged to the Kayastha community, first used “Bachchan" as a pen name. The word, which means “child-like" in Hindi, was a term of affection used by his mother. “She would call him, ‘Bachchanwa kidhar hai?’ He liked that and began using it as his writing name," Ajitabh told RJ Sachin. Eventually, the pseudonym became the family’s formal surname when Amitabh was admitted to school, marking a conscious rejection of caste-based identity.

Amitabh

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