59 Years of Kamal Haasan: Lesser known facts about the ‘Ulaganayagan’

Kamal Haasan is arguably one of the finest actors we have in Indian cinema. Starting off as a child artist, Haasan went on to win the President’s Gold Medal in his first film itself and is often known to experiment in films. Recently, Kamal Haasan completed 59 years in film industry, which is one of the biggest achievements ever by an actor. A multifaceted artist, Kamal Haasan has everything to his credit. As the ‘Ulaganayagan’ steps into another year in Indian film industry, we give you some of the lesser known facts about the superstar.

People are less aware of the fact that Kamal Haasan was actually named Parthasarathy. Born to a Brahmin family in Paramakudi, Kamal Haasan is a self-declared rationalist. His father Srinivasan was a lawyer and mother was a homemaker. In an interview, Haasan revealed that Parthasarathy was one of the names given to him. Kamal Haasan started acting at the age of four and has an experience over six decades in the Indian film industry.

Often regarded as Daniel Day-Lewis and Robert De Niro of Indian cinema, Kamal Haasan is easily the best actor in Tamil cinema. During his initial stage as an actor, Haasan’s biggest influence was Sivaji Ganesan and Marlon Brando. In his career so far, Kamal Haasan has received three National Awards for Best Actor for the films ‘Moondram Pirai’, ‘Nayakan’ and ‘Indian’, which are often regarded as cult classics. The ‘Vishwaroopam’ star received the National Award for production ‘Thevar Magan’, which went on to win five National Awards.

Interestingly, Kamal Haasan is also the recipient of highest Filmfare Awards. The actor has so far won a whopping 19 Filmfare Awards in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi languages. In the year 2000, Kamal Haasan reportedly wrote a letter to Filmfare requesting not to nominate him anymore and urged the committee to appreciate young talents in the industry. For the Hindi blockbuster ‘Saagar’, Kamal became the second actor to have won both Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor. This surely is a rare achievement by Haasan.

Kamal Haasan is the only actor to have the highest number of Academy Award submissions in Indian cinema. His first submission came in after playing the leading role in the Hindi blockbuster ‘Saagar’, which was directed by Ramesh Sippy. Kamal Haasan earned international recognition after essaying the iconic Velu Naicker in Mani Ratnam’s ‘Nayagan’ in 1987. Between 1985 and 1987, three of Kamal Haasan’s films were submitted for the Oscars. Interestingly, Haasan’s directorial venture ‘Hey Ram’ also became India’s official entry to the Oscars in 2000. However, none of the films were nominated for the Awards.

In 2016, the French government commemorated Kamal Haasan with ‘Chevalier’ Award for his outstanding contribution to Indian cinema. He became the second Tamil actor after the legendary Sivaji Ganesan to receive this prestigious recognition. It must be noted that Sivaji Ganesan was the first Indian actor to be made Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In fact, Kamal Haasan has modelled himself after ‘Nadigar Thilagam’. The duo has shared screen space in the iconic ‘Thevar Magan’. Apart from this, Haasan has received several national and international recognition for his work.

Kamal Haasan is the first Tamil actor to disown his fan clubs across Tamil Nadu. Haasan reportedly took the decision to convert his fan clubs into social welfare organisation after a group of fans carried a torch all the way from Pondicherry in the ‘80s to celebrate the success of one of their idol’s film. According to Haasan, his ‘Narpani Iyakkam’ has indulged in welfare activities for the last 37 years and has contributed over Rs 30 crore for the welfare schemes. Over the years, Kamal Haasan’s fans have been involved in many welfare activities like cleaning up a lake to organising blood donation camps. Now, the fans have started to show their support for Haasan’s recently launched political party Makkal Needhi Maiam.

In Tamil Nadu, the relationship between cinema and politics is more like an umbilical cord. The state has seen three chief ministers coming from the Tamil film industry. Kamal Haasan has always been bold and brazen when it comes to issues concerning freedom of speech and artistic liberties. After being wary of politics for far too long, Kamal Haasan finally took the plunge earlier in February announcing his own political party ‘Makkal Needhi Maiam’. In an interview, Haasan stated that he will no longer act in films once after entering real-time politics. Now that his ‘Vishwaroopam 2’ is running successfully in theatres, Haasan has two projects -- ‘Indian 2’ and ‘Sabash Naidu’ under his belt.