Asian-American actor Kal Penn, who starred in The Namesake, changed his real name Kalpen Modi so he wouldn’t get stereotypical roles.

Penn believes he wouldn’t have got the roles he has if he had remained with his original Indian name.

Contactmusic.com

quoted him as saying: "There were a couple of friends who said, ‘If you use Kalpen Modi on your resume, you’ll probably be more limited to roles. Whether it’s less letters or a neutral sounding name, am I trying to sound less ethnic? Yeah.

"But I didn’t want to come up with a completely separate name that has nothing to do with my own. So I just took my first name and split it in half.

"My parents’ friends said that in ancient Hindu numerology the sequence of three letters and seven letters all together, with that combination, is considered very lucky."