Kamal Haasan is a man in a hurry. On Saturday, his new film Uttama Villain was released. In the next few months, fans will get to see Papanasam, a remake of a Malayalam hit. Vishwaroopam 2, a sequel to his 2013 film on terrorism, is ready. And he's all set to star in a new thriller.

So where's the fire?

"I have always been in a rush," he replies. "I came back from Mumbai many years ago because they used to take two years to make a film. That was too long for me," the actor-director - clad in a pair of jeans and a casual shirt - says.

At a recent media meet in the two-storey office of his production company Rajkamal Films International in Chennai, the 60-year-old Padma Bhushan awardee is in a cheerful and conversational mood.

Kamal Haasan took 39 days to shoot Papanasam; 105 days for Uttama Villain. On the other hand, the Hindi film Saagar - a 1980s' hit - took two-and-a-half years to make, he points out.

To be in a hurry even after appearing in more than 200 films in a career spanning over 40 years (not counting the roles played as a child actor) is no mean feat. And to be a heartthrob of millions of fans for 40 years is quite a triumph.

He drummed his way into the hearts of young girls in 1975 as a brooding mridangam player in love with a Carnatic singer older than him in his mentor K. Balachander's path-breaking film, Apoorva Ragangal. Since then he has attempted a wide variety of roles - from a dwarf, a local don and a serial killer to a ventriloquist, village bumpkin and an autistic man. He even acted as a voluptuous woman in Chachi 420.

"Kamal Haasan has a passion in him that makes him want to do something different all the time," says veteran south filmmaker, Singeetham Srinivasa Rao, who made the National Award-winning silent film Pushpak in 1988 with him.

Over the years, Haasan has kept in step with new wave Tamil filmmakers. "I love small cinema," he says. "I come from that genre - my origins are from that space where content mattered. All of K. Balachander's films were like that. We, stars, did not matter at that time, the films mattered."

He also works closely on every aspect of a film, from special effects and make-up to choreography, songs and, of course, story and dialogue. Uttama Villain, for instance, was scripted and co-produced by him.

Haasan is so hands-on that even on matters such as make-up he strives for the right look. "In Papanasam, there is a scene where he is beaten up by the police and his nose swells up. He put this rubbery bit into his nose to get the swollen look and unfortunately it moved deep inside. So we rushed him, reluctant though he was, to the hospital and got it removed," narrates Jeethu Joseph, the director of Papanasam.

Jayasudha, one of his leading ladies in his earliest films and a top actress of her time, recalls the films the two did together. "We were both beginners and it was like being in a school while acting in Balachander's films. We were teenagers at that time. But some of my films with Kamal were sensational and had bold themes," she says.

The actor went national with Balachander's Ek Duje Ke Liye in 1975. There were other memorable Hindi films, including Saagar and Nayakan. But he returned to his roots in Chennai and poured his energies into creating an impressive body of work.

Any Kamal Haasan release today is not a small affair. In Uttama Villain, he plays a double role, an 8th century folk artiste and a 21st century superstar. The film, which goes back and forth between these two eras, probes the mind of a superstar who hides his true nature behind a mask.

"I play a good bad man," he says. The film is special to him because Balachander, who died last December, has a role in it. "Balachander, who plays a director in the film, wanted me to quickly release the film before he died," he says. The film also features five actresses.

And no, he clarifies, it is not based on his life. The actor was married twice - to dancer Vani Ganapathy and then the Hindi film actress, Sarika. He is currently living with a former south actress, Gautami Tadimalla. His daughters from Sarika - Shruti and Akshara - are both actresses.

His legion of fans and friends all have something laudatory to say about him. Crazy Mohan, who has co-written his successful string of comedies, describes the filmmaker as a voracious reader who pens poetry and loves the works of Francis Ford Coppola, Woody Allen, Robin Williams and Charlie Chaplin.

"I love his courage to experiment. We were working on a script together when he suddenly got the idea for a drama surrounding Mahatma Gandhi and he went for Hey Ram," he recalls.

But controversies dog the actor, from the sensuous kiss he shared with Rani Mukerji in Hey Ram to why the title of his film Mumbai Express should not be translated into Tamil (how do you translate Mumbai into Tamil, he asks in exasperation).

The film Vishwaroopam was stalled because some religious groups objected to scenes in the film which depicted Muslims as terrorists, forcing him to delete a few scenes. Then he wanted to release the film on the direct-to-home platform but the exhibitors threatened to boycott it, which prompted him to file a case in the Competition Commission of India. That matter was settled just recently, in time for the release of Uttama Villain.

"I don't know why controversies follow me. If anybody wants to raise a controversy they only think of me and my address," he rues. Recently, too, the Madras High Court dismissed a petition by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, seeking a stay on the release of Uttama Villain along with a deletion of a song about Lord Vishnu.

On what he has learnt all these years in cinema, Haasan says, "What I say may be a cliché but what I have seen over the years is that nothing is permanent but change. Nobody can remain at the top forever except for actors such as Yusuf saab," he says, referring to Dilip Kumar. "But for us, it is different - we have had to deal with the changes in cinema."

And that's the fire.