You may continue referring to Rajnikanth as Thalaiva (which means Superstar or Leader, the prefix given to him after the 1978 film ‘Bhairvi’ gave Rajnikanth God-like status down South), but Kamal Haasan now refuses to be known as Ulaganayagan (King of the World) or Aandavar (God). The South superstar has requested fans, media, the film industries he works for, and cadre of his political party Makkal Needhi Maiam to hereafter call him Kamal Haasan, Kamal or KH.

Explaining that this decision came from a place of humility, and a desire to remain true to his roots and purpose, Kamal Haasan said an artist must not be elevated above art, and he preferred to remain grounded, be constantly aware of his imperfections, and his duty to improve. He is not the first actor from the South to suddenly and modestly shed titles. Ajith Kumar in 2021 had also asked fans and the media to discontinue calling him Thala and just refer to him as Ajith, Ajith Kumar or AK.

The Southern film industries are notorious for adding prefixes to the names of their superstars. Among the more popular ones are Power Star (Pavan Kalyan), Prince (Mahesh Babu), Golden Star (Ganesh), Hat-trick Hero (Shiva Rajkumar), Victory (Venkatesh), Mega Star (Chiranjeevi), Supreme Star (R. Sarathkumar) and Rebel Star (Prabhas). Bollywood, thankfully, restricts itself to Khiladi (Akshay Kumar), Bollywood Badshah (Shah Rukh Khan) and Bhai (Salman Khan).