Haasan has won several Indian film awards including four National Film Awards and 19 Filmfare Awards.

With seven submissions, Kamal Haasan has starred in the highest number of films submitted by India for the Academy Award Best Foreign Language Film.

Haasan's production company, Rajkamal International, has produced several of his films.

Kamal Haasan received the Padma Shri in 1990 and the Padma Bhushan in 2014.

After several projects as a child, Haasan's breakthrough as a lead actor came in the 1975 drama Apoorva Raagangal, in which he played a rebellious youth in love with an older woman.

He won his first National Film Award for his portrayal of a guileless schoolteacher who cares for a childlike amnesiac in Moondram Pirai.

Haasan was noted for his performance in Mani Ratnam's Tamil film Nayagan (1987), rated by Time magazine as one of the best films in cinema history.

Haasan was born in 1954 into a Tamil family in Paramakudi Tamil Nadu.

He received his primary education in Paramakudi, moving to Madras as his brothers pursued their higher education.

Haasan won best actor the President's Gold Medal – Rashtrapathi Award for his performance in Kalathur Kannamma at age four, and starred in five more films as a child.

Haasan and the actress Sarika began living together in 1988, marrying after the birth of their first child, Shruti Haasan.