Kamal Haasan attended a college event in Chennai recently, where he took a few questions from students.
He seemed upbeat and very enthusiastic to share his wisdom on navigating life’s challenges with curious young minds.
However, the interaction took a serious turn when Kamal was asked to comment on the growing cases of suicides among students.
Kamal made a startling revelation that during the early days of his career, he had also grappled with suicidal thoughts. “When I was 20 or 21, I had thought about committing suicide,” he said.
Kamal revealed that he had fallen into the trap of an inflated self-image which bred unwanted thoughts within him. “I used to lament that neither the film industry nor the art world was giving me the value that I deserved. At the time I thought, if I died the industry would repent of losing such a talented artist. I have seriously discussed it with my mentor Ananthu. He asked me, ‘If you are a genius, who am I?’ He advised me to continue working and patiently await my time,” he said.
Kamal noted he considered suicide as sinful as committing a murder. “Murder is considered the first deadly sin. And I believe suicide is equally sinful. It’s a crime,” he said.
He also recalled an interesting conversation he had with late political thinker and actor Cho Ramaswamy, who posed him a thought-provoking question. “He asked me, will you kill a small baby? I said, sir, how can I do such a thing? In that case, how can you think about killing your father’s baby?” he recounted.
He urged the students to remember that darkness in life was temporary and that sunlight will eventually shine through.
