Shruti Hassan Biography

Shruti Hassan is an Indian actress, singer and music composer who has worked in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu films. Her parents are noted actors, Kamal Haasan and Sarika. As a child artiste, she sang in films and appeared in a guest role, before making her adult acting debut in the 2009 action drama, Luck. She has won acclaim for her role in the Walt Disney fantasy film, Anaganaga O Dheerudu. She is currently filming for several projects including A. R. Murugadoss's 7aam Arivu alongside Suriya.

Shruti Hassan

Shruti Hassan has also continued her stint in music through work as a singer in regional Indian languages, a career in music direction beginning with her father's production Unnaipol Oruvan and her own music band and album.

Career

Early career
Shruti Rajalakshmi Haasan was born to actors Kamal Haasan and Sarika in Chennai, India. Her younger sister Akshara represents India nationally for Ballroom Latin dancing. Haasan studied at Abacus in Chennai and moved to Mumbai to study psychology at St. Andrew’s College.

Shruti Hassan 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 Thevar Magan in the composition of Ilaiyaraaja. While in school, Haasan made her singing debut in the Hindi language film, Chachi 420, singing a duet with her father who also directed the film. Shruti Hassan sang the bilingual versions of the title theme, Rama Rama with her father, in Hindi and in Tamil for the movie Hey Ram. The album from Ilayaraaja, which was critically praised, won Haasan accolades for her efforts with Screen India saying that she "has the makings of a good singer, and with some training she should go great guns".

Shruti Hassan

Shruti Hassan sang with veteran singer K J Yesudas for the movie 'En Mana Vaanil' under Ilaiyaraaja's music. The song was 'Roattorap paattuch chaththam'. The movie was released in 2002. She has sung for Gautham Menon's Vaaranam Aayiram under the composition of Harris Jayaraj. As of November 2008, Haasan is also midway through her untitled debut album, which she has composed, written and sung, and is set for release in mid-2009. A further song was recorded with her voice for her Hindi film, Luck.

In September 2010, Haasan collaborated with Dave Kushner for the film, Hisss. Whilst Kushner composed the track, Shruti Hassan wrote the lyrics, sang and appeared in a promotional video for the film.

Acting
After pursuing a career in singing Shruti Hassan also entered into modelling. She appeared in the Frappe! magazine of September 2007 and in Verve.

In 2000, Shruti Hassan made a cameo appearance as the daughter of Vallabhai Patel in the biopic of Mahatma Gandhi.

After rejecting prominent 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 to the film, which was titled, Endrendrum Punnagai, only to be stalled prior to production. Eventually Haasan signed up to Soham Shah's Luck opposite Imran Khan, a Bollywood film. However, despite the film gathering much publicity prior to release, it became a critical and commercial flop. In mid 2010, Shruti was signed by A. R. Murugadoss to star opposite Surya Sivakumar in his next film 7aam Arivu, and the film's shoot began in June. She made her Telugu Debut in January 2011, acting opposite Siddharth in the fantasy adventure film Anaganaga O Dheerudu directed by Prakash Kovelamudi son of director K. Raghavendra Rao. The film was made with a budget of 27Crores and is co-produced by Walt Disney Pictures.

Shruti Hassan

Shruti Hassan has also given her voice to an HIV/AIDS education animated software tutorial created by the nonprofit organization TeachAIDS.

Music composing

After much speculation, Shruti Haasan was finalized as the music composer of the Tamil film Unnaipol Oruvan which released in 2009. The bilingual is a remake of the successful Hindi film, A Wednesday!. The soundtracks of both the projects are separate. Apart from this, Shruti is also the vocalist of an alternative rock band The Extramentals.

Songs

"Potri Paadadi Ponne" 1992 Thevar Magan Ilaiyaraaja
"Jaago Gori" 1997 Chachi 420 Vishal Bharadwaj
"Ram Ram" 2000 Hey Ram Ilaiyaraaja
"Roattorap Paattuch Chaththam" 2002 En Mana Vaanil Ilaiyaraaja
"Adiye Kolluthe" 2008 Vaaranam Aayiram Harris Jayaraj
"Aazma (Luck Is The Key)" 2009 Luck Salim-Sulaiman
"Allah Jaane" Unnaipol Oruvan Shruti Haasan
"Unnaipol Oruvan"
"Vaanam Ellai"
"Semmozhiyaana Thamizh Mozhiyaam" 2010 — A. R. Rahman
"Nenapidu Nenapidu" Prithvi Manikanth Kadri
"Beyond The Snake" Hisss Dave Kushner
"Evan Ivan" Udhayan Manikanth Kadri

Filmography

2000 Hey Ram Shruti Patel Tamil
Hindi Cameo appearance
2009 Luck Ayesha Kumar,
Natasha Kumar Hindi
Unnaipol Oruvan Herself Tamil Special appearance in promotional video
2010 Hisss Herself English Special appearance in promotional video
2011 Anaganaga Oka Dheerudu Priya Telugu
Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji Nikki Narang Hindi
7aam Arivu Tamil Filming
Oh My Friend Telugu Filming
Untitled Boyapati Seenu Project Telugu Filming
2012 Vishwaroopam Tamil Pre-production