Did you know Gandhi & Iron Man 3 actor Ben Kingsley's real name is Krishna Pandit Bhanji?

Ben Kingsley has made a huge impact on the world of cinema, especially in the West. He has worked in a number of successful movies and impressed the audiences all over the world with his stellar acting performances. While the actor was born in England, he has Indian origins. Not only that, the name that he is known by all over the world is not even his real name, it is his stage name. Have a look at the real name of the actor along with other interesting details about him.

Did you know that Ben Kingsley’s real name is Krishna Pandit Bhanji?

This fact may not be known to many of his fans, but his real name is Krishna Pandit Bhanji, a name which confirms his Indian origins. Ben was born to an Indian father with Gujarati origins and a mother with British origins. While he was formally named as Krishna Pandit Bhanji, he soon came to be known as Ben Kingsley. An interesting fact about his stage name is that its first name is derived from his name, with ‘Bhanji’ been shortened to ‘Ben’; on the other hand, his second name ‘Kingsley’ is derived from the nickname of his grandfather, ‘King Cloves’, according to folomojo.com.

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He joined the world of dramatics and theatre at a very early age. He studied at De La Salle College in Salford, which then became the home to the Ben Kingsley theatre. While he is most known for portraying the role of Mahatma Gandhi in the film Gandhi, it happened to be only his second film. Ben’s Indian origins proved to be an advantage of him bagging the role and had striking facial similarity with Mahatma Gandhi. His role in that film earned a lot of popularity, and he came to be known worldwide with his stage name ‘Ben Kingsley’.

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Another interesting fact about Ben Kingsley is that he had made his debut in the film Fear Is The Key in the year 1972. His second film Gandhi came straight after an entire decade in 1982 and won him several awards and nominations for his role. He has also worked in other popular films such as Schindler’s List, Iron Man 3 and many more. Ben Kingsley turns 77 years of age on December 31. 

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