‘I was a happy child, a parrot, not cage’: Kamal Haasan opens up about his childhood, calls himself ‘lucky’ to become star

NEW DELHI: After stepping into the entertainment industry at the age of six years old, many fans of Kamal Haasan wondered about the actor’s childhood phase and how he stepped into the profession of acting to become a megastar.

To burst this bubble of suspense, Kamal Haasan, in a recent media interaction in Delhi to promote his upcoming film, Thug Life, recalled his childhood phase and opened up about his journey to becoming a star in the cinema industry.

During the press conference of ‘Thug Life’, Kamal said that he was a happy child like a “parrot” who was not “caged”. He called himself lucky to become a “star” despite being surrounded by many talented and intelligent children during his theatre days.

“I was a happy child. I was a parrot, not cage, but they taught me, and I repeated. It’s only after 7 when I joined the theatre and all that, I realised that so many intelligent children, and I’ve been lucky to have become a star. That’s when I actually started learning outside of school,” said Kamal Haasan.

However, the ‘Vikram’ actor believes that he cannot remain in his childhood phase because he is evolving every day.

While recalling his meeting with filmmaker Mani Ratnam during ‘Nayakan’, the actor said that he is not the same person today that the director met during that time. They both seems to have evolved, he added.

“So I think I have evolved. I have today also it is also coming out, but not that same one, not even the same one, he (Mani Ratnam) met or I met during ‘Nayakan’. We both evolved and changed for the good. That’s why I said retaining sensibilities and changing,” said Kamal Haasan.
During the press conference, Kamal also addressed the reports about the movie’s OTT release.

While speaking about the eight-week OTT window for Thug Life, the ‘Vikram’ actor revealed that the team of Thug Life requested the OTT platform to have an eight-week gap between the theatrical and the streaming release date of the film.

The actor further emphasised that this move can help other movies too.

He shared, “We requested them, it was not a negotiation or deal breaker. We wanted them to do this for us. Hopefully, we are experimenting in this together for both the company and the OTT platform. And if it works, we would have made it easier for the people to do both businesses.”

Co-written by Kamal Haasan and Mani Ratnam, ‘Thug Life’ is set to be released in theatres on June 5.

The film also features Trisha Krishnan, Sanya Malhotra, Abhirami, Ashok Selvan, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Joju George, Nassar, Ali Fazal, and Rohit Saraf. (ANI)