It is the Greek God of Bollywood aka Hrithik Roshan’s birthday and we can bet his diehard fans are already cutting cakes on his behalf! The actor was born on 10th January 1974 and is celebrating his 44th birthday on Wednesday. After being away from the limelight for quite some time, the actor-dancer is all set to play the role of a mathematician, Anant Kumar in Vikas Bahl-directed film ‘Super 30’.

Hrithik has amassed a wide fan-following by always choosing hatke roles in films like Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Kaabil, Mission Kashmir, Fiza, Jodha Akbar to name a few. But all this did not just come through heredity, but the actor has put a lot of efforts before venturing into the showbiz industry. So, wouldn’t it be interesting to know what are those little factors in Hrithik’s life that made him the superstar that he is? Here's a list of interesting unknown facts about the Kaabil star.

1. We all know that Hrithik Roshan is the super-handsome member of the Roshan khandaan. But how many of you know his real surname is ‘Nagrath’? Not many, we guess.

2. Hrithik Roshan has done his schooling in Mumbai’s Bombay Scottish School, which is touted to be a prestigious institution seeing the list of its ex-students like Ranbir Kapoor, Abhishek Bachchan, Aamir Khan, John Abraham to name a few.

3. We all are in love with his choice of roles, but you would be surprised to know that films like Dil Chahta Hai, Swades, Don and Rang De Basanti had him as the first choice and the actor chose to decline them!

4. Very few know that Hrithik Roshan was a chain-smoker earlier, but he decided to quit it. He read Allen Carr’s ‘Easyway to Stop Smoking’ and never touched a cigarette since then.

5. The handsome hunk of B-town is fondly called as ‘Duggu’. Yes, we all know that! But do you know how and why this name popped up for him? It was his grandmother who started calling him as ‘Duggu’ as she lovingly called her son Rakesh Roshan as ‘Guddu’.

6. Want to bump into Hrithik Roshan? J W Mariott’s Spanish restaurant Arola is where you should go! This restaurant is apparently one of the favourite places of the actor where he loves to sit and binge eat.

7. Hrithik’s debut film Kaho Naa..Pyar Hai won many accolades and was appreciated to the core. But before Hrithik signed this role of a heartthrob in KNPH, he had already signed films with grey characters- Mission Kashmir and Fiza, where he plays a misled terrorist.

Well, we hope that these facts have helped you raise your fandom for the light-eyed hero of the Hindi cinema industry. Meanwhile, get excited about his next big projects- Super 30 and YRF’s untitled dance drama with Tiger Shroff. Happy 44, Hrithik!

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 10, 2018 10:17 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).