Kamal Haasan

Kamal Haasanis an actor,screenwriter, andfilmmaker who has worked primarily in Tamil cinema for over six decades and is considered to be one of the greatestmethod actors and auteursofIndian cinema.Widely acclaimed as an actor, writer and director, he has won several Indian film awards, including fourNational Film Awardsand numerousSouthern Filmfare Awards, and is known for having starred in the most number of films submittedby India in contention for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.He has also featured in films as ascreenwriter,songwriter,playback singer,choreographer,andlyricist.His film production company,Rajkamal International, has produced several of his films. After beginning as a child actor, Kamal Haasan's breakthrough came with his role in the 1975 dramaApoorva Raagangal, in which he played a rebellious youth in love with an older woman. He secured his second IndianNational Film Awardfor his portrayal of a guileless school teacher who tends a child-like amnesiac in 1982's Moondram Pirai, and was later noted for his performance inMani Ratnam'sNayagan (1987), which was ranked inTIMEmagazine's "All-Time 100 Movies" list.Since then, he has gone on to appear in numerous other notable films, such as his own productions,Hey Ram(2000) andVirumaandi (2004), as well as theDasavathaaram (2008), in which he became the first actor in history to appear inten distinct roles in the same film.