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Perfectly in tune

Photo: K. Murali Kumar

WEARING MANY HATS Shruti Haasan is many things rolled into one

Shruti Haasan, daughter of well-known actors Kamal Haasan and Sarika, doesn’t make for an interesting copy. Most of her answers fall on the verge of being called boring. You hardly expect it out of someone who makes alternative rock with a band called The Extramentals.

A singer and song writer, Shruti is now all set to make her debut as an actor with Luck opposite Aamir Khan’s nephew Imraan Khan.

Her role in the film, from what we have heard, requires Shruti to do many action scenes, but all the budding actor can come up with is, “I am very excited about the action scenes... and I am looking forward to learn from the veteran actors acting in the film.” The shooting of the film produced under the banner of Ashtavinayak productions will begin on July 8 in South Africa.

The Soham Shah directed film also stars Sanjay Dutt, Mithun Chakraborty, Danny Denzongpa, Ravi Kisshen and Rati Agnihotri.

Looks like the 21 year-old Shruti has been asked to keep mum about the role but what about her father Kamal Haasan’s much-hyped film Dasaavataram which is currently showing in theatres across the world. Well, she sticks to “It’s a wonderful film.” Shruti who has had formal training in music studies from the prestigious Musicians Institute in Hollywood also writes some of her songs. The singer has just finished performing at a string of concerts with her live band “The Extramentals” at Kingfisher’s Pubrockfest in Kerala, Mumbai’s Hard Rock Café and at the launch of a music magazine.

Ask her what comes naturally to her, singing, writing, acting or modelling and Shruti again drops a one-liner, “Being a show-off comes naturally to me.”

May be singer-writer-actor just pours herself out in her poetry.

Shruti once said in an interview that her work will always have a social message. “Social messages aren’t necessary for me, but my work is biographical.

My writings reflect how I relate to people and things around me,” says the actor-in-the-making, who was in Bangalore for the store launch of UK-based fashion brand French Connection. This isn’t her first stint with modelling. She has appeared on the cover of a glossy magazine.

Now-a-days, stars’ sons and daughters become stars even before they are launched. The media hype and everything else, ensures their popularity and fame.

Does she miss out on the struggle that a newcomer without any links in the industry has to probably go through? “I think it is a big misconception. What is a struggle? It can happen after 15 years of your career or 10 years?” says Shruti, who with her fair complexion, sharp features and brown eyes has a striking resemblance to her mum Sarika.

On powerhouse performer and father Kamal Haasan and mom Sarika who has reinvented herself in recent times with films like Parzania , Bheja Fry and Manorama: Six Feet Under, Shruti says: “I take ethics from my parents but try not to imitate them.

Having famous people as your parents has both negative and positive sides to it but if you don’t feel the stress, it doesn’t exist.”

The father-daughter duo has rendered an Ilaiyaraja composition in 1992 blockbuster, Thevar Magan. Shruti was only six when she sang this song. It would be interesting to see the father-daughter duo together on screen.

“He has got a very busy schedule. I have tried bullying him into it. It will be exciting to work with him because I have learnt most important lessons in life from him,” says Shruti, who also sang in another Kamal starrer Hey Ram

Shruti might be entering the world of cinema, where her parents belong to but she isn’t content with just being her parents’ daughter.

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