As many as 30,000 people have "followed" actor-filmmaker Kamal Haasan on Twitter within 24 hours of him joining the micro-blogging site.

Haasan joined Twitter on the Republic Day and his daughter Shruti Haasan was the first person to welcome him. His handle "@ikamalhaasan" is already verified.

His first tweet was a video of him singing the national anthem, composed by maestro Ilayaraja. "India's freedom struggle remains unique even today. Respecting it is d only way to keep it & set new world standards," he wrote along with the video.