Signing you in

Young Kamal Haasan was born into a family full of artistic talents, starting with his mother, Rajalakshmi, who reportedly played the violin. Although his father, D Srinivasan, was a lawyer by profession, he harboured a deep admiration for the arts.

Kamal’s elder brothers, Charuhasan and Chandrahasan, were singers (and later became actors), while his sister, Nalini, began learning dance at the age of five. The youngest of Rajalakshmi and Srinivasan’s four children, Kamal (née Parthasarathy Srinivasan) grew up basking in the love of these artists.

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He made his debut as a child actor at the age of five in Kalathur Kannamma (1960), and his elder brother, Charuhasan, who is over two decades older than Kamal, has since been by his younger brother’s side as a protector and guide — even on film sets for a long time. He became Kamal’s pillar of support throughout his career and personal life, and the little one saw Charuhasan as a fatherly figure.

Not just Charuhasan, but his wife, Komalavalli, also played a crucial role in Kamal Haasan’s life. As Rajalakshmi was diagnosed with chronic diabetes and her health deteriorated, Komalavalli took up the responsibility of raising and caring for baby Kamal.

The actor-filmmaker himself has often shared heartwarming memories of her, whom he actually thought was his real mother during his formative years. In fact, when he eventually learned that Komalavalli wasn’t his biological mother, a young Kamal took the news quite hard and cried for an entire day before eventually coming to terms with it.

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She also revealed that Kamal brought her comfort after she and Charuhasan lost their baby boy shortly after delivery. “Kamal was born in 1954. In 1955, I lost a son who died shortly after childbirth. Then, my daughter was born in 1957. So, for about four years, it was just him. Later, he looked after my children as if they were his own younger siblings,” she added. Charuhasan and Komalavalli have three children together, including veteran actor Suhasini Maniratnam.

Widely regarded as one of the greatest actor-filmmakers in the history of Indian cinema, Kamal Haasan has won the National Film Award for Best Actor three times — the second most by any thespian, a record he shares with Mammootty and Ajay Devgn. He was most recently seen in director Mani Ratnam’s Thug Life (2025), which became a critical and commercial failure.

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