Kamal Haasan

Kamal Haasan : Biography

Kamal Haasan (born November 7, 1954, Paramakkudi, Tamil Nadu, India) is a highly acclaimed Indian film actor. His work is mainly based in the South Indian film industry.
Kamal was born in the family of Srinivasan and Rajalakshmi as the fourth and youngest child. His father gave all three of his sons the suffix of "Haasan" as a sign of his friendship to one Mr. Haasan. Kamal entered the film world as a child actor at the tender age of 6 in the film Kalathur Kannamma and has been associated with the film world since then. Kamal learnt the fine arts in his early years instead of school work. As a teenager, he started working as an assistant choreographer in movies and it was during this time that his long and fruitful association with notable Tamil film director, K. Balachander began. A film buff, Kamal is regarded as a trendsetter by many.
Endowed with a fiercely independent spirit, Kamal is a self-professed non-conformist and a follower of Periyar though some of his movies have put forward Communist views (like in Anbe Sivam) as well as exposing fundamentalist Hindutva views (like in Hey Ram). Kamal is the first actor to turn his fan clubs into registered non-profit service organizations. Though born to an affluent Iyengar family, he denied his caste identity. Along with his daughter, Kamal has donated his eyes and also offered his body for medical research after his death, the first Indian celebrity to do so. He is the only indian actor after Dr Rajkumar to promise that he will not act in scenes which portay smoking or drinking .However before making such a promise he acted in few films as a smoker and drunker (e.g., Valveh Mayan, Virumandi, Nilalgal Nijamakirathu,etc.) Kamal married Vani Ganapathy in 1978. The marriage was turbulent, issueless and lasted 7 years. Kamal has two daughters through his relationship with Sarika. Shruti was born in 1985 and Akshara in 1991. Their relationship was legalised through marriage after the birth of Akshara in the presence of Sivaji and his wife Kamala. They finally separated in 2003 after being together for nearly 18 years.

Kamal Haasan : Career

Kamal acting career spans four decades. He is known in the Indian film industry for his talent and versatility in acting. He has capably played an array of characters in his films. He has appeared in movies made in six languages, including the four major South Indian languages - Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. His other forays were into the North Indian movie industry via Hindi and Bengali films.
Kamal made his screen debut with Kalathur Kannamma at the age of six and it won him the first National Award for Best Child Artist. He followed it with appearances as a child actor in movies that featured MGR, Sivaji Ganesan and Gemini Ganesh.
Though he was already introduced as an adult hero in earlier films like Avargal, Aval Oru Thodarkathai, Solla Thaan Ninaikkiren, Maanavan and Kumara Vijayam, it was 16 Vayathinile, with Sridevi that established him as a popular teen idol at the age of 23. Togather they acted in 23 films and were a popular acting pair. The following year, he got his break with K. Balachander's Telugu hit Maro Charithra. His first attempt at direction came through an unfortunate turn of events with the demise of director TN Baalu during the filming of Sankarlal in 1981. Kamal reached superstardom in 1979 with multiple classics and mass blockbusters which coincided with the decline of MGR/Sivaji era in movies (MGR quit movies in 1977 while Sivaji, nevertheless continued to act till the 90s). Kamal has managed to hold off competition successfully till date by differentiating his films in scripts, roles and get-ups.
Kamal's second attempt at direction came through another unfortunate turn of events when the original director Shantanu Sheroey failed to do a good job while filming Chachi 420 in 1997. Inspired by the European style of closer-to-reality docu-dramas, Kamal moved decisively towards making films for select classes in the 90s, isolating some of his ardent fans.
He began his film career with an interest in movie direction, but under the influence of his mentors had turned to acting. He did several commercial movies for a major portion of his career, but then moved away from the purely commercial venture. He is also a trained playback singer (sometimes moonlighting as a lyricist as well in his more recent films). He is an able performer of the Bharatanatyam dance form. He had assisted in choreography early in his career. He was also a part of Mani Ratnam's stage show, Netru, Indru, Naalai, which is a tribute to filmmaking.
Kamal is a three-time winner of the National Film Award for Best Actor for the films Nayagan, Moondram Pirai, and Indian. He also won the national award for "Best Child Actor" for his performance in Kalathoor Kannamma. He has also received the best actor award at the Asian Film festivals held in 1983 and 1985 for Saagara Sangamam and Swathi Muthyam respectively. Seven of his movies have been sent as India's official entry to the Oscars - this itself is a record of sorts as it is more than any other person. Kamal holds the record for the most Filmfare awards (numbering 18). Recently, Kamal Haasan was honoured when his self-directed venture titled Virumaandi won the International Award for Best Asian Film, selected by a European jury, at the eighth Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival (PiFan) in South Korea for the Year 2004. In 2005, he was honoured when TIME magazine listed Nayagan as one of the World Top 100 Movies of all time. On the whole, Kamal Haasan has bagged 171 awards (national, as well as international), much more than any other actor in the world.
He has been awarded the fourth highest recognition given to Indian civilians - the Padmashri in 1990. He has been conferred an honorary doctorate by Sathyabama Deemed University, Chennai in 2005.