Kamal Haasan is an Indian film actor, screenwriter, and filmmaker, considered to be one of the leading method actors of Indian cinema. He is widely acclaimed as an actor and is well known for his versatility in acting. Kamal Haasan has won several Indian film awards, including four National Film Awards and numerous Southern Filmfare Awards, and he is known for having starred in the most number of films submitted by India in contest for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In addition to acting and directing, he has also featured in films as a screenwriter, songwriter, playback singer, choreographer and lyricist. His film production company, Rajkamal International, has produced several of his films. In 2009, he became one of very few actors to have completed 50 years in Indian cinema.After several projects as a child artist, Kamal Haasan's breakthrough into lead acting came with his role in the 1975drama Apoorva Raagangal, in which he played a rebellious youth in love with an older woman. He secured his second Indian National Film Award for his portrayal of a guileless school teacher who tends a child-like amnesiac in 1982'sMoondram Pirai. He was particularly noted for his performance in Mani Ratnam's Godfatheresque Tamil film Nayagan(1987), which was ranked by Time magazine as one of the best films of all time. Since then he has gone on to appear in other notable films such as his own productions, Hey Ram and Virumaandi, as well as the Dasavathaaram, in which he appeared in ten distinct roles.