Charuhasan Srinivasan (born 5 January 1931) is an Indian actor, director and retired lawyer who has acted in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. He won the National Film Award for Best Actor and the Karnataka State Film Award for Best Actor for the Kannada film Tabarana Kathe (1987). Charuhasan is the elder brother of veteran actor Kamal Haasan and father of Indian actress Suhasini.
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Early life
Charuhasan was born on 5 January 1931 to lawyer and Indian independence activist D. Srinivasan and his wife Rajalakshmi. He was the eldest son of the couple and more than twenty-three years older than his youngest brother Kamal Haasan.
Charuhasan had a different schooling to other children his age; due to an accident he was unable to attend school for the first few years of his life and had a private tutor give him a basic education. He was directly admitted to fifth grade at the age of nine. In 1949, Charuhasan joined the Raja Lakhamgouda Law College in Belgaum and qualified as a lawyer in 1951.
Charuhasan practised law from 1951 to 1981. As lawyer, Charuhasan appeared in many high-profile cases, even representing U. Muthuramalingam Thevar in the Immanuvel Sekaran murder case. During this period, he was influenced by the rationalist philosophy of Periyar E. V. Ramasamy. Periyar even referred to Charuhasan as his sishyan (disciple).
In the film industry
Charuhasan was interested in movies since childhood. During the late 1940s, he used to watch two foreign films a day. When his younger brother, Kamal Hasan, started acting in movies as a child actor, Charuhasan was his caretaker. Charuhasan eventually made his debut in the 1979 Tamil film Uthiripookkal directed by Mahendran which was based on a short story by Pudhumaipithan. Since then, he has acted in more than 120 films, often playing supporting or antagonistic roles, his most important movies being Vedham Pudhithu, Tabarana Kathe and Thalapathi. He has also directed two films, IPC 215 and Puthiya Sangammam.
Personal life
Charuhasan is married to Komalam since 1953. They have three daughters: Nandhini, Subhashini and Suhasini. Suhasini is an actress and married to film director Mani Ratnam.
Awards
1986 – National Film Award for Best Actor for Tabarana Kathe
1986 – Karnataka State Film Award for Best Actor for Tabarana Kathe
1992 – Filmfare Award for Best Kannada Actor for Kubi Matthu Iyala
Selected filmography
Tamil
Telugu
Malayalam
Kannada
Tabarana Kathe (1987)
Suprabhatha (1988; as presenter)
Kubi Matthu Iyala (1992)
Durga Shakti (1999)
Neelambari (2001)
Director
Pudhiya Sangamam (1982)
IPC 215 (2003)
Books
His book, Thinking on my Feet : Charuhasan Autobiography published by LiFi Publications, New Delhi under the imprint Biog has been released during the New Delhi World Book Fair, 2015.