Sir Ben Kingsley Reveals His Real Name and the Sad Reason for Changing It Before Gandhi Role

A startlingly accurate portrayal of Mahatma Gandhi rightfully earned Sir Ben Kingsley an Academy Award at the first time of asking – but winning his life-changing role as the venerated Indian leader would come at a significant cost. 

The legendary actor was 38-years old when he was cast as Gandhi in director Richard Attenborough’s 1982 biopic alongside Sir John Gielgud, Martin Sheen, Edward Fox and Sir John Mills. 

Remarkably, it was only his second film appearance after more than a decade working on a range of mainstream TV dramas, notably legendary BBC staple Play For Today and the enduringly popular Crown Court.

But Kingsley, 81, born Krishna Pandit Bhanji to an English mother and an Indian father, admits he needed to change his birth-name in order to work in the industry after a chastening audition as a young actor.

‘As soon as I changed my name, I got the jobs,’ he told the latest edition of Radio Times. 

‘I had one audition as Krishna Bhanji and they said, “Beautiful audition but we don’t quite know how to place you in our forthcoming season.” 

‘I changed my name, crossed the road, and they said when can you start?’  

Kingsley’s first TV role came in 1966 sitcom Pardon The Expression, with the actor winning a series of fleeting small screen roles throughout the 1970s before landing a career-defining role in Gandhi. 

And the irony in changing a name with origins entrenched in Hinduism and Islam to ultimately play one of India’s greatest free thinkers isn’t lost on the veteran star. 

‘I suppose it says more about the 1960s than anything else,’ he said. ‘But the irony is of course I changed my clunky invented Asian name to a more pronounceable, and acceptable, universal name in order to play Mahatma Gandhi. There’s your irony.’ 

Kingsley would return to his Indian heritage to play Sikh driving instructor Darwan Singh Tur in 2014 romantic drama Learning To Drive. 

But he admits he no longer views himself as Krishna after decades spent living under his stage name. 

‘I don’t think I think of myself,’ he said. ‘When I was on stage, I thought of myself as a landscape painter. 

‘Now that I’m blessed with a film career, I see myself as a portrait artist, and for many, many years I have signed my portraits Ben Kingsley. That’s who I am.’ 

The actor has also won accolades for his portrayal of Holocaust survivor Itzhak Stern in Steven Spielberg’s harrowing 1993 drama, Schindler’s List. 

In 2000, he won a new legion of fans after signing up to play sociopathic criminal Don Logan in Jonathan Glazer’s Sexy Beast – a role that earned him Screen Actors Guild, Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations. 

Happily married to Daniela Lavender, his fourth wife, Kingsley has watched sons Edmund and Ferdinand follow him into the acting industry.

But while he is fiercely proud of their achievements, the actor admits he never asked his own parents if they were proud of him as his career took off.   

‘I think asking them would have been a terrible admission of their absence, so I never asked them because I didn’t want to hear the answer,’ he said. 

‘You should never have to audition for your love.’