Gemini Ganesan was a legend who could make even southern superstar Kamal Haasan starry-eyed.

"Another stalwart bites the dust. I'm disappointed. He promised he would live to be 90 like his mother," Haasan told on the death of Ganesan, who passed away in Chennai at the age of 84 early Tuesday.

"Gemini Ganesan was among my idols. He could make me starry-eyed."

Haasan, for whom his death has been as much of a personal loss as a professional one, began his career in one of Ganesan's films.

"I played his son in my first film. It must have been his 60th or 70th film. Savitri amma (Gemini Ganesan's wife) was opposite him. They adopted me since then."

Haasan said Ganesan was a scholar among stars, having been a lecturer in a college before starting a career in acting.

"In those times actors didn't shun education. He knew several languages including Sanskrit. I knew him from very close quarters.

"He was a great practitioner of yoga. Some of the asanas he did were worthy of winning prizes. He was also an excellent tennis player, a sharpshooter and a horse rider. A very happy chirpy man! I never saw him brooding.

"He had a thriving career. While the two other giants (Sivaji Ganesan and M.G Ramachandran) competed with each other, Gemini kept giving hits. He was known as the 'Jubilee King'... a record-breaker."

Haasan believes Gemini Ganesan was a reluctant actor.

"He treated it like an office-going job. He produced one film, 'Nana Avinillai' directed by my mentor K. Balachander, which featured Gemini Ganesan with Savitri. I think it was later remade into Hindi 'Main Woh Nahin' with Rekha in the lead.

Gemini Ganesan was one of the three pillars of the Tamil film industry since the 1950s, the other two being Sivaji Ganesan and M.G. Ramachandran.

"He knew I was a fan of Sivaji sir. And he accepted it," says Haasan. Haasan believes he was beyond "the dull moral boundaries of a normal social structure. He led a full life. None of his wives complained. And all his children were by his side (at the time of death).

"Another era ends with Gemini Ganesan. But to me it's a personal loss."