He made his screen debut with the Tamil movie Kalathur Kannamma at the tender age of 5.
16 Vayathinile, in which he co-acted with Rajinikanth, established him as a popular actor. However, he got his break with K. Balachander's Telugu hit Maro Charithra. Besides Tamil, he has also performed in movies in Hindi and other languages. He has played a plethora of characters including a ventriloquist, an under-world don, a freedom-fighter, a classical dancer, a blind violinist, a dwarf clown and a mentally challenged man.
He is a three time winner of Indian National award for best actor, for the films Nayakan, Moonram Pirai, and Indian. 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.
After his first film production with his 100th movie Raja Parvai, he consistently involved himself in film making. He wrote screen plays for several of his films and finally ventured into film direction with Hey Ram, a film depicting the conflict between the revolutionaries and proponents of non-violence during the Indian independence movement.
Kamal Hassan had to rename his latest venture Sandiyar to Virumandi owing to a protest from a community in Tamil Nadu.
