Archive · 13 Aug 2026
Kamal Haasan, cinema's 'oldest Gen Z,' marks 67 years
Kamal Haasan is a very famous movie star from India.
He has been in movies for 67 years, which is a very long time.
He started when he was just 5 years old, back in 1960.
Now he is 71 years old.
He jokes that he is 'the oldest of Gen Z in cinema,' even though Gen Z usually means young people.
He says that out of all those 67 years, only about 20 years were really useful learning time.
Movies were invented about 130 years ago, so he has been part of them for more than half of that history.
He has worked on about 420 movies, doing acting, directing, writing and more.
Once, he helped make fake face bumps for the action star Sylvester Stallone in the movie 'Rambo III.'
He learned special movie makeup skills so he could bring them back to India.
Kamal Haasan, 71, called himself 'the oldest of Gen Z in cinema' while completing 67 years in the film industry.
He began his career as a child artist in 1960, playing 5-year-old Selvam in 'Kalathur Kannamma.'
He said only about 20 of his 67 years in cinema count as actual learning, with the rest 'going with the flow of the wastewater.'
Per IMDb, he has around 420 film credits spanning acting, direction, production, sound and writing.
He spent about a month and a half as an assistant makeup artist on 'Rambo III' (1988), learning prosthetic makeup from Michael Westmore.
- Who
- Veteran Indian actor Kamal Haasan, who began as a child artist at age 5 in 1960.
- What
- Celebrated 67 years in cinema, calling himself 'the oldest of Gen Z in cinema' and saying only about 20 of those years were actual learning.
- When
- At the time of completing 67 years in the industry; his career began in 1960.
- Where
- New Delhi (article dateline); his remarks were posted on X.
- Why
- To mark his six-decade-plus career milestone and reflect on his work, including learning prosthetic makeup on the set of 'Rambo III.'
- Actor
- Kamal Haasan (71 years old)
- Career milestone
- 67 years in the film industry
- Debut film
- Kalathur Kannamma (1960), as 5-year-old Selvam
- Film credits
- Approximately 420, per IMDb
- Self-assessed learning
- About 20 years of his 67-year career
- Assistant makeup work
- Rambo III (1988), under Oscar-winning makeup artist Michael Westmore
- Remarks cited from
- X post and 'The Kapil Sharma Show'