He also starred in the Hindi films Ek Duje Ke Liye and Sagar, the latter won him the Filmfare Best Actor Award, in 1985. The 1989 film, Pushpak, a silent film and a black comedy, won him the Filmfare Best Kannada Actor Award. Nayagan, inspired by The Godfather, fetched him his third National Film Award. It was India’s entry to the Academy Awards’ Best Foreign Language Film category in 1987 and went on to be listed in Times Top 100 Movies.

1990-1999 The nineties saw a lot of laughs with films like Michael Madhana Kamarajan, Sathi Leelavathi based on She-Devil and Avvai Shanmughi based on Mrs.Doubtfire. In 1992, he produced and acted in Thevar Magan, for which he got the Filmfare Best Tamil Actor Award for his role of Shakti, the son of a village head. The film was nominated in 1992 for the Academy Awards’ Best Foreign Language Film category. Indian, a Tamil film released in 1996, saw Hassan walking away with his fourth National Film Award and The Filmfare Best Tamil Actor Award. He made his directorial debut with Chachi 420, a remake of Avvai Shanmughi in Hindi.

2000-2009 The year 2000 began with his second directorial venture Hey Ram, which was made in Hindi and Tamil. Hassan scripted, produced and acted in it. He won the Filmfare Best Tamil Actor Award, though the film was more of a critical success rather than a commercial one. He acted in quite a few funnies like Thenali, Panchathantiram and Pammal K. Sambandam. He played Nalla Sivam in Anbe Sivam with Madhavan. He directed, scripted, acted and produced Virumaandi in 2004, about death penalty. In 2006 he had a big hit in Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu, in which played an honest cop. His most recent film in 2008 was the extravagant Dasavathaaram, in which he played ten different roles.


He is currently working on his project Thalaivan Irrukiran, a film to be released in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi, for which he has penned the screenplay and is set to direct it, his love for multiple roles evident on and off screen.