Shruti Haasan takes forward a great legacy

She’s the rock star from Chennai with a great family lineage. Having sung for legends like Ilayaraja and Dave Kushner, Shruti Haasan confesses that singing is her first love but movies are not far behind. She talks to Hemanth Kumar about what it means to be a multi-faceted artist and being the daughter of Kamal Haasan.

Her debut film Luck might have failed to impress the audience but Shruti Haasan is not disappointed. This multi-talented leggy lass from the famous ‘Haasan’ clan has an impressive long CV that ranges from singer, lyricist, composer to an actress. The elder daughter of power packed performers Kamal Haasan and Sarika, it may be an inborn urge or rather natural decision for Shruti to make a career out in the film industry.

We meet Shruti Haasan amidst her photoshoot for  Anaganaga O Dheerudu on a lazy Sunday afternoon in Hyderabad. Her chemistry with Siddharth is palpable. She seemed tired as she works round the clock -shooting for Ezham Arivu in Chennai and shuttling between Hyderabad and Mumbai to promote her upcoming films, Anaganaga O Dheerudu and Madhur Bhandarkar’s Dil Toh Bachcha Hai Ji. Soon, we are ushered into the make up room by her assistants and in no time she flashes her affable smile as we talk about her love for music, movies and life in general.

Shruti’s own stint with the film industry started when she was six years old when she crooned Potri Paadadi Penne along with Sivaji Ganesan for the film Thevar Magan, which had her father Kamal Haasan in lead role. Ilayaraja had composed the music of that film and eighteen years later, Shruti has already sung for Vishal Bharadwaj, Harris Jayaraj, A R Rahman, Manikanth Kadri and international rock legend Dave Kushner.

“It’s a good omen if you start your singing career under Ilayaraja,” she says. She continued her singing, but it was mathematics which forced her to consider music more seriously. “As a student I was terrible at mathematics. I used to score like 2.5 or 3 marks out of 100. Then in class 9 or 10, someone told me that I can drop maths and choose music as a subject. I couldn’t be happier,” she reveals as she takes a trip down the memory lane.

Trained in Hindustani classical music, Shruti says it was a deliberate choice not to get in to carnatic music. “It was a conscious decision. I thought why learn something which was already available. I wanted to learn something different. Hindustani classical music was perfect for me as it gave a much wider base for what I wanted to do,” she says.

What started as a fun activity, turned out to be serious business for her. “Now singing is more than just crooning few lines. It gave me so much inner-peace that it has become a way of life for me. It’s my meditation, peace and happiness.”

She’s an accomplished pianist and also trained herself in classical opera. Today, she sings a lot of stuff including pop, punk, rock, jazz. Shruti is also the lead vocalist of her alternative rock band – The Extramentals.

“I also went to a music school - Musicans Institute in Los Angeles, California. That’s where I learnt more about composition. I have always been in to singing and when I was eighteen years old, I started singing for bands. It’s an electrifying experience to perform in front of a huge crowd!” Has music been always her first love? “I love singing, movies and acting. But more than anything, I love showing off! Luckily, all these three things allow me to do just that!” Beat that!

“We had a lot of freedom at home and we could choose what we wanted to do but the condition was that we should work hard at it.” And we must say that she has put this freedom to good use. While Shruti started her career with singing, her younger sister, Akshara Haasan is a Ballroom Latin dancer and she will soon participate in the 2012 Olympics in London, representing India.

Apart from music, Shruti was also a lot into cinema when she was a teenager. She made her first onscreen appearance in Hey Ram, back in 2000, where she made a cameo as Shruti Patel, the daughter of Vallabhai Patel. “Actually, I didn’t act in Hey Ram. They needed someone urgently in this role and I was my mother’s (Sarika)costume assistant in the film. I just walked past the frame and people dubbed it as my onscreen debut!” she laughs. Her debut, as an actress, happened to be Soham Shah’s action-thriller Luck in 2009. However, the film hardly made any noise at the box office. Did that affect her?

“No. I have grown up in a family where my parents are actors. I have realized that the failure of a film has got little to do with an actor. Even if you are bad, it’s eventually the director’s job to bring the best out of you. I always trust my directors and co-stars. Some very good films fail, some very bad films do well. So, the failure and success of a film is just an irrelevant concept. Ultimately, I want to work hard, learn something and move on from there.” Mention about her dad, she gets in to an instant happy mood. “He is obsessed with cinema. For him, nothing comes before films. And I learnt that, that kind of dedication gets you somewhere in life.” As a kid did she miss her dad, who would spend most of his time at shooting spots? “Of course. We did miss him during our annual days or sports days in school. My mother was also an actress and she had explained the situation to us. We always knew that we had to share our dad because he was the Kamal Haasan! But when’s around, he’s always with us and he’s a superb dad.”