Birthday special: 20 fun facts about Shruti Haasan

THERE is so much more to Shruti Haasan than just being the daughter of actress Sarika and legendary superstar Kamal Haasan.

The popular star is a singer, musician and actress, who has worked in multiple languages.

This week, on January 28, she will turn a year older and celebrate her 33rd birthday. To mark the actress’ birth anniversary, Eastern Eye decided to present 20 fun facts about her.

• Shruti was born in Chennai, India and learned music in California, USA.
• At the age of six, Shruti sang her first song for her father Kamal Haasan’s film Thevar Magan (1992), which was composed by music legend Ilaiyaraaja.
• At school, Shruti used the alias Pooja Ramachandran because she didn’t want her friends to treat her like a movie star’s daughter.
• The talented youngster made her singing debut in Bollywood while still at school for Chachi 420 (1997), which was another of her father’s famous films.
• She made her first appearance in a feature film as a teenager with a cameo role in Hey Ram (2000), which was written, produced, directed and starred her father. She also sang for the film.
• Shruti composed the soundtrack for Tamil thriller Unnaipol Oruvan (2009), which was a remake of Hindi film A Wednesday. The film and music were simultaneously made in Telugu.
• Her blockbuster hit Gabbar Singh (2012) was a remake of Bollywood film Dabangg (2010).
• Shruti won her first meaningful acting award for Telugu fantasy-adventure Anaganaga O Dheerudu (2011) and Tamil science fiction 7aum Arivu, (2011) with a Filmfare South Award for Best Female Debut.
• Her hit film Telugu action-comedy Balupu (2013) was dubbed in Hindi and Tamil. There were also remakes done by other producers in Bengali and Kannada.
• She won a Filmfare South Award for Best Actress for action-comedy Race Gurram (2014), which was the highest grossing Telugu language film of that year.
• Shruti has successfully enjoyed careers in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi cinema.
• She has her own rock band named The Extramentals.
• The talented actress can reportedly speak eight different languages.
• Her all-time favourite films include The Godfather and Mughal-e-Azam.
• Shruti has worked with her famous father from a young age, but her big ambition today is to work with her mother Sarika.
• Although she practises yoga and goes to the gym, Shruti’s favourite way to keep fit is through dancing.
• The actress has trained in various dance forms including kuchipudi.
• The gift she treasures most is a keyboard gifted by her father on her 18th birthday because she started making music on it. She sees it as her lucky charm.
• Characters she has played that remain close to her heart include Janani in 3 and Charuseela in Srimanthudu.
• The singer performed for the first time in London in 2018 at NED Hotel as part of their weekly showcase, New Music Monday that received rave reviews.