Kamal Haasan at 72: Seven Oscar Entries and a Career of Firsts

Kamal Haasan turns 72 today, and the birthday tributes are less about nostalgia than about a career that still refuses to sit still. His daughter Aksharaa Haasan shared a photo with him and wrote that anyone can be a father, but not everyone can be “a dad, friend and inspiration.”

Fans filled the comments with greetings, but the bigger story is the record attached to that word inspiration: Haasan has been linked to seven films submitted as India’s official entry for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. That, as Deccan Chronicle noted, is the most for any Indian actor.

A daughter’s tribute, a record worth noting

It would be easy to treat a birthday post as a routine family note. It lands differently here because the résumé backs it up. Haasan was born Parthasarathy Srinivasan and has moved through so many roles that calling him simply an actor feels incomplete.

Across Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi, Kannada and Bengali cinema, his filmography runs past 230 projects. He has worked as actor, director, producer, screenwriter, playback singer, lyricist, editor, choreographer and makeup artist.

The proof behind the ‘inspiration’ label

The Oscar record is only one part of the argument. Haasan has repeatedly turned high-concept ideas into commercial cinema, often before the industry had the tools to support them.

• Seven Indian Oscar submissions associated with Kamal Haasan — the highest for an Indian actor.
• Dasavathaaram (2008) had him playing ten distinct characters in one film.
• Vikram (1986) used computer-assisted song recording, and Indian helped introduce prosthetic makeup.
• Major honours include the Kalaimamani (1978), Padma Shri (1990), Padma Bhushan (2014), the Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters (2016), and 19 Best Actor awards.
• A first in Kollywood money: in 1994, he became the first Kollywood actor to command Rs 1 crore for a film.

In 2025, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences invited him to join its actors’ branch, a quiet nod to the overseas footprint his work has built.

What comes next

For Hindi film fans who know him largely through titles like Sadma or Chachi 420, the birthday is a good reason to dip back into the wider filmography. The actor who played ten roles in Dasavathaaram is not finished.

He is set to share screen space with Rajinikanth in a film directed by Nelson Dilipkumar. If that pairing lands, it will add another chapter to a career that already has more firsts than most.

Source: The Times of India