After 50 years, Kamal Haasan who started his career as a three- year-old child artiste, has signed up exclusively with a celebrity, talent sourcing and management firm. Alliance Media & Entertainment Pvt Ltd will now source brands and value associations he can lend his name to. Founder and MD Sunil Doshi is categorical that neither he nor the movie icon are driven by money: “The idea is to give something back to society and make Kamal Haasan known beyond the South. Today, unfortunately the world knows him more than the country does.”

Doshi was the founder member of ABCL (now AB Corp) that pioneered the trend of celebrity management with the BPL campaign featuring Amitabh Bachchan and directed by Rakyesh Omprakash Mehra back in 1993. His company now represents the whole family, along with other stars.

“Mr Haasan read a recent article on me in Fortune magazine and called me for a meeting. He admitted that it’d be difficult for him to mouth lines praising a product, but he was open to creating properties that would leverage his talent,” says Doshi, adding that they’re looking to promote issues like global climate change, environment consciousness, eradicating social ills and development.

The idea is to create an image for the Padma Shri winning actor-director on the lines of George Cloney and Sean Penn. Doshi says, “Mr Haasan has plans about social service, but is unwilling to rely on external sources of funding. He believes endorsements with leading brands with a commitment to society would be more appropriate.”