Star Portrait-Shruti Hasan

Shruti Rajalakshmi Hassan is well known as Shruti Hassan is an upcoming Indian actress, play back singer and Music Composer. She was born to actors Kamal Hassan and Sarika on 28 January 1986 in Chennai, India. She was born to parents who are multi talented, it doesn’t surprise me at all that Shruti is good at everything that she sets her mind to do….be that modelling, be it acting, be it as a singer or a music composer….this young lady has done it all! Another beautiful person in Shruti’s life is her Sister Akshara, who represents the country (India) nationally for what is known as Ballroom Latin dancing! In the year 2000, Shruti’s parents took a call to separate and go their own way.

Shruti Hassan studied at Abacus in Chennai, until 10th grade, when she moved to Mumbai to study psychology at St Andrew’s College. However, 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. Shruti Hassan has also done a voice over for a HIV/AIDS teaching animated software tutorial that has been created by Teach AIDS (a non-profit organization).

Professional Career

As Singer

Shruti Haasan sang her first song aged just six in her father’s “Thevar Magan” in the composition of Ilaiyaraaja. Later while pursuing her studies in school, Shruti 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 Shruti Haasan accolades for her efforts with reviewers, Screen India praising that she “has the makings of a good singer, and with some training she should go great guns”.

Shruti Haasan had the opportunity to sing 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 in a Tamil film, 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 under her voice for her Hindi film “Luck”.

Music composing

After much speculation, Shruti Hassan is the music composer of the bilingual film “Unnaipol Oruvan” in Tamil and “Eenadu” in Telugu which released in 2009, with lead role played by her father Kamal Hassan who is also 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 separate. Apart from this, Shruti Hassan is also the vocalist of an alternative rock band.

As Actress

After pursuing a career in singing, Shruti Hassan branched out a career into modelling. She started by starring appearing in the Frappe! Magazine version of September 2007, since then she has gone on to appear in Verve. In 2000, Shruti Haasan made her cinematic debut in the Tamil and Hindi bilingual film “Hey Ram” directed by her father. She 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 Shruti 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 Hassan 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. Shruti Hassan’s second Hindi feature film was Madhur Bhandarkar’s romantic comedy “Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji” in which Shruti Hassan appeared in an extended guest appearance alongside an ensemble cast of Emraan Hashmi, Ajay Devgn and Shazahn Padamsee. Shruti’s performance gained poor responses from critics with a reviewer however the film went on to become a commercial success at the box office.

Shruti then went on to appear alongside Blaze in the promotional videos for “Unnaipol Oruvan” and “Eenadu”, the bilingual films in Tamil and Telugu starring her father, which she had composed the music. It was in the year 2010 that Shruti starred in an English film “Hisss” where she was seen as playing herself. This was yet again for a promotional video, so she had a special appearance. 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 co-produced by Walt Disney Pictures. The film opened to positive reviews, with her performance being praised with critics. The film however became a commercial failure at the box office, and the film failed to capitulate on a hefty promotional campaign which had been undertaken. In mid-2010, Shruti was signed by A. R. Murugadoss to star opposite Suriya in his next film 7aum Arivu, and the film's shoot began in June later that year.

The film opened to mixed reviews, but became commercially successful. Her next Telugu release was “Oh My Friend” a romantic comedy film alongside Siddharth again which also co-starred Hansika Motwani and Navdeep. The film opened to average reviews. Shruti Haasan was next seen in Aishwarya Dhanush's directorial debut “3” a romantic drama film co-starring Dhanush. The film only garnered average returns at the box office. Her second release in 2012 was Harish Shankar's Telugu film “Gabbar Singh” a remake of the 2010 Hindi film “Dabangg” with the version featuring her alongside Pawan Kalyan. The film went on to become a large commercial success at the box office and created more film offers for the actress. Her next release in Telugu is “Balupu” with Ravi Teja. Shruti will be a part of upcoming Telugu movie “Yevadu” which has Ram Charan Teja in the lead as well as Prabhu Deva's new venture in Hindi. This movie features producer Kumar Taurani's son Girish Kumar.