Indian actor and producer Mohanlal Viswanathan is celebrating his 61st birthday on Friday. Commonly known as Lal in the Malayalam film industry, the actor has also made appearances in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Hindi movies during his four decades of career. Mohanlal has won five national awards for his work and acted in more than 340 films till now.

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Here are some lesser-known facts about the Malayalam superstar that you should know:

1. Mohanlal was born on May 21, 1960, in Elanthoor village of Kerala. His father, Viswanathan Nair, was a former bureaucrat and Law Secretary with the Kerala government. Mohanlal was his youngest child.

2. During 1977 and 1978, Mohanlal was Kerala’s wrestling champion. 

3. His first acting role was in class 6, when he played a 90-year-old man in a stage play called ‘Computer Boy’.

4. Mohanlal was 18 when he made his debut in the film industry with ‘Thiranottam’ in 1978, but due to some censorship issues its release got delayed by 25 years.

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5. Mohanlal was awarded the honorary rank of Lieutenant colonel in the Territorial Army in 2009, making him the first Indian actor to receive the rank. 

6. The actor founded ViswaSanthi Foundation, a non-profit organisation, in 2015. The foundation aims to “create and deliver high impact and focussed programs to the underprivileged sections of the society in the areas of healthcare, education and socio-economic development,” as per its official website.

7. Mohanlal secretly underwent 18 months of escape artist training under magician Gopinath Muthukad in 2009. He planned to perform a dangerous stunt in Thiruvananthapuram but cancelled it later amid pressure from various quarters, including his fans. 

8. He is married to Suchitra, daughter of the Tamil film producer K Balaji, since 1988. The couple has two children- Pranav Mohanlal and Vismaya Mohanlal. Pranav has acted in a few films, debuting in Mohanlal’s ‘Onnaman’.