‘Once actors become senior, they may become repetitive and boring for the audience. Kamal sir is updated.’

What makes Kamal Haasan such a towering personality?

The legendary movie star remains modest as he answers at the trailer launch of his new film Hindustani 2: Zero Tolerance: “You are talking about a big personality. You are not the man who has seen my image in my toilet. I have. He is not a big man. He is yet to become a big man.”

Kamal Haasan returns as Senapathy to eradicate corruption once again.

So how old is Senapathy exactly?

“I don’t know, it could be 140. I would like to act even when I am 130,” he says.

Kamal Haasan, who has done so many films over the years, confides that he cannot do the same scene in the same way in the second take. He also doesn’t remember the dialogues of his films.

Watch: Kamal Haasan thanks his audience for making him an Indian

Siddharth stars in the film too, and is in awe of his director Shankar, who had launched him in the hit film, Boys.

Watch: What Siddharth loves about his two mentors.

The surprise guest who arrived for the launch was Jawan Director Atlee, who worked with Shankar for six years before he became an independent director.

Watch: Atlee calls Kamal Haasan the…

Why does corruption still exist in our country?

Kamal Haasan tries to give his reasons: “It is us. The politicians are none other than one of the populates. We are all responsible for corruption and we must all change our mind and the best time to change our mind is during elections. These are just reminders of how corrupt we have become.”

Watch: Did you know Kamal Haasan wrote Thevar Magan in just seven days?

Speaking about working with Kamal Haasan in 1996’s Hindustani and the latest film, Director Shankar says the main change he see in the actor is “his experience and his updated acting”.

“Once actors become senior, they may become repetitive and boring for the audience. Kamal sir is updated,” he says.

Haasan adds his observations about Shankar over the years: “The Mr Shankar I saw 28 years ago as confident as he is today. I was not willing to do the film as I had another script to work with Sivajisaab (Ganesan) but he never budged. Then I raised my money. The producer agreed because the director said, ‘If I make Hindustani, I will make it with this gentleman only.’

“He was confident like a very savvy and seasoned director.”

Watch: Here’s what Siddharth learnt from Kamal Haasan and Shankar.

Then Shankar delivers a surprise, saying Hindustani 3 is ready.

“The first Hindustani revolved around one state, Tamil Nadu. It was three hours 20 minutes long. When I was making Part Two, the initial idea was to make just one part. But the story spreads to all over the country, so naturally it became long.

“When I was editing, I felt that all the scenes had come out very well. Now, if for the sake of compressing, I cut the scenes, the soul of the scenes will be lost. There are two parts of the story and each part had a start, body and climax. It evolved automatically, so we decided to make that the third part.”

Watch: Kamal Haasan tells us what it’s like working with Shah Rukh Khan.