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Kamal Haasan is a Actor, Director, Scriptwriter, Producer, Assistant Director, Editor, Makeup Artist, Playback Singer and Choreographer Indian born on 7 november 1954 at Paramakudi (Inde)

Kamal Haasan

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Nationality Inde
Birth 7 november 1954 (70 years) at Paramakudi (Inde)
Creator of Raaj Kamal Films International
Awards Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan, National Film Award for Best Actor, Filmfare Awards, Nandi Awards

Kamal Haasan (born 7 November 1954) is an Indian film actor, screenwriter, director, producer, playback singer, choreographer, lyricist, philanthropist and dancer who works primarily in the Tamil film industry. Haasan has won several Indian film awards including four National Film Awards and 19 Filmfare Awards. With seven submissions, Kamal Haasan has starred in the highest number of films submitted by India for the Academy Award Best Foreign Language Film. Haasan's production company, Rajkamal International, has produced several of his films. Kamal Haasan received the Kalaimamani Award in 1979, the Padma Shri Award in 1990 and the Padma Bhushan Award in 2014.
After several projects as a child, Haasan's breakthrough as a lead actor came in the 1975 drama Apoorva Raagangal, in which he played a rebellious youth in love with an older woman. He won his first National Film Award for his portrayal of a guileless schoolteacher who cares for a childlike amnesiac in Moondram Pirai (1983). Haasan was noted for his performances in Mani Ratnam's crime film Nayagan (1987), rated by Time magazine as one of the best films in cinema history as well as Shankar's vigilante film Indian (1996) which saw him playing dual roles of a father and a son. Since then he has appeared in a number of films including Hey Ram (2000), Virumaandi (2004), Vishwaroopam (2013) which were his own productions and Dasavathaaram (2008) in which he played ten different roles.

Biography

Family

Kamal Haasan was born into a Tamil Iyengar Family in the town of Paramakudi, in the Ramanathapuram district of Tamil Nadu, to criminal lawyer D. Srinivasan and Rajalakshmi a housewife. One source says that his parents originally named him Parthasarathy and his mother always used to call him by that name. In an interview with Karan Thapar, Haasan said his father was literate in Sanskrit. Kamal was the youngest of four children; his siblings are Charuhasan, Chandrahasan and Nalini (Raghu). His two older brothers followed their father's example and studied law.

Haasan referred to his parents in Unnaipol Oruvan and the song "Kallai Mattum" in Dasavathaaram. His oldest brother Charuhasan, like Kamal, is a National Film Award-winning actor who appeared in the Kannada film Tabarana Kathe. Charuhasan's daughter Suhasini is also a National Film Award winner married to director (and fellow award-winner) Mani Ratnam, who collaborated with Haasan on 1987's Nayakan. Chandrahasan has produced several of Haasan's films and is an executive with Rajkamal International. Chandrahasan's daughter Anu Hasan has had supporting roles in several films, including Suhasini's Indira. Haasan's sister, Nalini Raghu, is a dance teacher for whom he named an auditorium (Nalini Mahal). Her son, Gautham, played Haasan's grandson in Hey Ram.

Relationships

Early in his career, he co-starred in several films with Srividya. They were reported to have had an affair during the 1970s, and their relationship was explored in the 2008 Malayalam film Thirakkatha by Renjith (with Anoop Menon as Haasan and Priyamani as Srividya). Haasan visited Srividya when she was on her deathbed in 2006.

In 1978, at age 24, Haasan married dancer Vani Ganapathy. They divorced ten years later.

Haasan and the actress Sarika began living together in 1988, marrying after the birth of their first child, Shruti Haasan (born 1986). Shruti Haasan is a singer and a Tollywood-Kollywood actress. Their younger daughter, Akshara (born 1991), was assistant director for 2013's Vishwaroopam. Sarika stopped acting soon after their marriage, replacing Vani Ganapathy as Haasan's costume designer for Hey Ram. In 2002, the couple filed for divorce, which became final in 2004.

Haasan's affair with co-star Simran Bagga (22 years younger than him) triggered the breakup. His relationship with Simran (who appeared in Pammal K. Sambandam and Panchathantiram) was brief, since Simran married her childhood friend in late 2003. Haasan has been living with former actress Gouthami Tadimalla (who starred with him in several films during the late 1980s and early 1990s) since 2005. Shruti, Akshara and Gouthami's daughter Subbalakshmi (from an annulled marriage) live with them.

Views
Kamal Haasan is a self-proclaimed atheist. Haasan has often questioned the existence of God and has highlighted the theme in his films like Anbe Sivam and Dasavathaaram. He has been thought to be Muslim because of his Arabic-sounding name, most notably when he was denied preclearance by U.S. Customs and Border Protection authorities at Toronto Pearson International Airport in 2002. In Sanskrit Kamal means "lotus", but it was rumoured that his name originated with a friend of his father (Yaakob Hassan, a Muslim freedom fighter who was imprisoned along with Kamal's father by the British). In a BBC interview with Karan Thapar Haasan said that his last name derives from the Sanskrit word hasya, and although the Yaakob Hassan connection was publicised by the media it was only "a story". Although he has abstained from politics, Haasan is considered left-leaning or independent and has said that his politics would result in his death within a year.

Humanitarian work

Haasan is the first Tamil actor to convert his fan clubs into welfare organisations and is involved in social-service activities through the clubs under the name Kamal Narpani Iyakkam (Kamal Welfare Association). His fan clubs help organise blood- and eye-donation drives, and donate educational materials to students.

Haasan received the first Abraham Kovoor National Award for his humanist activities and secular life in 2004. He was project ambassador for Hridayaragam 2010, which raised funds for an orphanage for HIV/AIDS-affected children. In September 2010 Haasan launched a children’s cancer relief fund and gave roses to children with cancer at Sri Ramachandra University in Porur, Chennai. He has pledged his product-endorsement income to social causes. Haasan won ₹ 5 million on Neengalum Vellalam Oru Kodi in March 2013 and promised that his prize money would be used for Petral Thaan Pillaya, supporting children with HIV.

Kamal Haasan was nominated by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the Swachh Bharat Campaign. He chose to clean the Madambakkam lake in Chennai with the Environmentalist Foundation of India's Arun Krishnamurthy on 7 November 2014.

Known for refusing any kind of brand endorsement, Haasan endorsed Pothys for the first time in 2015. His daughter, Shruti Haasan has previously endorsed Pothys. In the past, Haasan has stated that should he ever act in commercials, the revenue earned from them would be donated to HIV affected children.

Writings
Haasan publishes the magazine Mayyam, by the Kamal Haasan Welfare Association (Narpani Iyakkam). His views on cinema, child and drug abuse, and the Kashmir conflict have been published as Thedi Theerpom Va (Come, Let's Find and Solve) by his fan club. Haasan is also interested in Tamil literature.