Bollywood star’s pet name..

They might be called glam dolls and macho men onscreen, but they have some rather funny pet names offscreen.

Isn't it amazing that in Bollywood, where most stars have screen names, several are still saddled with the pet names they picked up in childhood! For instance macho man Salman Khan is addressed by most everyone in the industry as Bhai, because his siblings and boyhood chums called him that. Salman is also known as Sallu, but this is a pet name he doesn't care to hear from everyone.

To continue, does Gullu suit former beauty queen Aishwarya Rai Bachchan? Perhaps not, but it goes well with Bollywood's bad man Gulshan Grover! That other beauty, Sushmita Sen, in the meanwhile, must live down the ignominy of being called Titu!

If you need to ryhme, consider Guddu and Duggu... Rakesh Roshan and son Hrithik respectively. And don't know what Bong bombshell Bipasha Basu's parents were thinking of when she was young and they adoringly called her Bonny. But clinical analyst Dr Pratikshay Dhole explains the trend, "A nickname is sometimes considered desirable, symbolising a form of acceptance, but can often be a form of ridicule. In most cases it eventually becomes a term of endearment."

Celina Jaitley is called as Chinki at home, and Mahima Chaudhary whose original name was Ritu Chaudhary, is known as Rits! Govind Arun Ahuja or Govinda, is known by everyone as Chi Chi, it is a name given by his mother Nirmala Devi. "In Punjabi, Chi Chi means little finger. Apparently, Lord Krishna lifted an entire mountain on his little finger so that his poor friends could take shelter. Chi Chi's a symbol of strength and unity," says Govinda. The Kapoor sisters Kareena and Karisma are Bebo and Lolo respectively . Karisma explains her pet name, "I got it from my dad because my mother liked the Italian actress Gina Lollobrigidia." Bebo's boyfriend Shahid Kapoor, meanwhile, is cute as Sasha. Aamir Khan's friends call him AK and Shah Rukh Khan's known as SRK. But Juhi Chawla calls him Lucky Ali, because she believes SRK's a fluke! Malaika Arora Khan is Malla and sister Amrita is Amu. Lanky Tabu is Tabassum, that's her real name, and Tabu her pet name! Akshay Kumar's real name is Rajiv Bhatia and he is called Raju by his friends. He adopted Akshay, aka Akki, as his screen name. Ajay Devgan was Vishal Devgan but friends call him VD. And not many know that Boney Kapoor's original name is Achal Kumar. Sunshine and Angel are Ameesha Patel's pet names. She adores them. "Both were given by an uncle who lives in Paris. He used to spoil me silly," recalls Ameesha. While Suniel Shetty is Anna to everybody , Sanjay Dutt's pet name given by his mother Nargis is Sanju, but the industry knows him as Baba. Abhishek Bachchan's pet name is Abhi and dad Amitabh is called Amit. But the funniest and most interesting name has to be Aftab Shivdasani's . He's called Faffy! And nobody can beat Priyanka Chopra whose pet name Piggy Chops was given to her by Abhishek Bachchan while shooting for Bluffmaster