Shruti Haasan

28 Jan, 1986 | Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Singer/Music Director/Actress

Biography

Shruti Haasan is an Indian singer turned actress. Shruti Rajalakshmi Haasan was born to actors Kamal Haasan and Sarika on January 28, 1986 in Chennai, India. She also has a younger sister named Akshara, who represents India nationally for Ballroom Latin dancing. Haasan studied at the Lady Andal in Chennai, until 10th grade, after which she moved to Mumbai to study psychology at St Andrew’s College. However, Haasan shifted her focus to cinema and music, and eventually travelled to the USA to continue to learn music at the Musicians Institute in California, before returning to Chennai. Singing Shruti Haasan sang her first song aged just six in her father's film Thevar Magan in the composition of Ilaiyaraaja. Later, while pursuing her studies in school, Haasan made her singing debut in the Hindi language film, Chachi 420, singing a duet performing for the voice of a child, with her father Kamal Haasan, who also directed the film. Shruti Haasan's second song came in Hey Ram, where she sang the bilingual versions of the title theme, Rama Rama with her father, in Hindi and in Tamil. The album from Ilayaraaja, which was critically praised, won Haasan accolades for her efforts with reviewers and Screen India praising that she "has the makings of a good singer, and with some training she should go great guns". Shruti Haasan has also sung in a Tamil film, for Gautham Menon's Vaaranam Aayiram under the composition of Harris Jayaraj. Haasan also came out with her debut album, which she has composed, written and sung, in mid-2009. Acting After pursuing a career in singing, Shruti Haasan branched out into a career in modelling. She started by appearing in the Frappe! magazine issue of September 2007; since then, she has gone on to appear in Verve. In 2000, Haasan made her cinematic debut in the Tamil and Hindi bilingual film, Hey Ram, directed by her father. She also made a cameo appearance as the daughter of Vallabhai Patel in the biopic of Mahatma Gandhi. After rejecting significant film offers, most notably the lead role in Venkat Prabhu's Saroja, reports suggested in late 2007 that Haasan was set to make her full debut as a heroine in 2008 with a movie opposite Madhavan directed by Nishikanth Kamath. Despite Madhavan admitting that the news "was premature", she signed up for the film, which was titled, Endrendrum Punnagai, only to be stalled prior to production. Eventually, Haasan signed up in Soham Shah's Luck opposite Imran Khan, a Bollywood film. Music Composing After much speculation, Shruti Haasan was confirmed as the music composer for the upcoming Tamil film Unnaipol Oruvan, with a lead role played by her father Kamal Haasan who was also the co-producer of the movie under Rajkamal International. The bilingual is a remake of the successful Hindi film, A Wednesday!, but the soundtracks of both the projects are entirely different.