Kamal Haasan

Biography

Kamal Haasan (born 7 November 1954) is an Indian filmmaker and politician, currently serving as a Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha for Tamil Nadu. Among the most prominent and celebrated film auteurs in modern Indian cinema, his body of work spans over 230 films across six decades in a wide array of languages including Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi, Kannada and Bengali. In addition to his extensive work as an actor, director, producer, screenwriter, playback singer and lyricist, he has also worked as an assistant director, choreographer, editor, make-up artist, narrator, television host, and film distributor. In 1987, he founded a literary magazine, Maiam, which he edited, and has written over 100 poems and some books. He was conferred the Kalaimamani in 1978, the Padma Shri in 1990, the Padma Bhushan in 2014, and the Order of Arts and Letters (Chevalier) by the Government of France in 2016. Haasan has also won the National Film Award four times (including three for Best Actor), and is also known for having starred in the most number of films (7) submitted by India in contention for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 2025, he was invited by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to become a member of its actors' branch.