Nitin

Kamal was born to Srinivasan and Rajalakshmi as their 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.

Kamal's acting career spans four decades. He is known in the Indian film industry for his talent and versatility -- he has capably played a diversity of characters in his films. He has appeared in movies made in six languages, including the four major South Indian languages - Telugu,Tamil , Kannada and Malayalam. His other forays were into the North Indian movie industry via Hindi and Bengali films.

He acted in commercialised films for a major portion of his career, but then moved away from the purely commercial ventures. He is also a trained playback singer and sometimes pens the lyrics for the soundtracks of some of his recent films. He is an able performer of the Bharatanatyam dance form. He had assisted in choreography early in his career.

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.

In seventies Kamal entered in to cinema at full swing. Apart from acting in Tamil films, he was also cast during this period in Malayalam films directed by some of the leading Malayalam directors of the day. 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 in the film 16 Vayathinile, with Sridevi, that established him as a popular teen idol at the age of 23. Kamal Haasan and Sri Devi were a popular acting pair and have acted together in 23 films. The year following his appearance in 16 Vayathinile, Kamal Haasan acted in director K. Balachander's Telugu hit Maro Charithra.

During the 1970s, he has played a host of characters that include:

a ventriloquist in Avargal
a village innocent in 16 Vayathinilae
a disco jockey in Ilamai Oonjaladugiradhu
a psychopath serial killer of women in Sigappu Rojakkal
a buck-toothed villager in Kalyanaraman
a Middle-Eastern youth with a magical lamp in Alavudheenum Arpudha Vilakkum

Kamal's multi-faceted talent came to the fore in off-screen departments like direction, scripting, screenplay, special effects and these reached full bloom in this decade.

Again, he has played diverse roles in this period, which include:

a Hindu fundamentalist set out to assassinate Mahatma Gandhi, who changes heart after his muslim friend's death in Hey Ram
as a lisping immigrant from Sri Lanka afflicted by all kinds of phobias in Thenali (an adaptation of the film What About Bob), at the age of 46
a pair of twins (one of which is a deranged psychopath) in Aalavandhan
a randy pilot in the comedy caper Panchathanthiram
a disabled altruist in Anbe Sivam
a rustic wrongly jailed for the murder of his lover in Virumaandi (directed by Kamal)
a deaf circus stuntman in Mumbai Express at the age of 51
as DCP Raghavan, a smart and suave policeman with his "Raghavan instinct" out to trace a serial psychopath killer duo in Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu

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. Six of his movies have been sent as India's official entry to the Oscars. Kamal has won the Filmfare awards 18 times. He was awarded the fourth highest recognition given to Indian civilians - the Padmashri in 1990. He was conferred an honorary doctorate by Sathyabama Deemed University, Chennai in 2005.[1] Kamal haasan has won a total of 171 awards which is more than any other actor in the world living or dead.