Legendary film Director K Vishwanath passes away

Hyderabad: Well-known film director and also screenwriter and actor, Kasinadhuni Viswanath, popularly known as ‘K Viswanath’ passed away at his residence due to age-related ailments here on Thursday night.

He was 92.

Viswanath, who was born in Repalle of Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh, was popular for iconic films such as Sankarabharanam, Sagara Sangamam, Swathi Muthyam and Swarna Kamalam among others.

His works primarily in Telugu cinema, is recipient of five National Film Awards, seven state Nandi Awards, ten Filmfare Awards South, and a Filmfare Award in Hindi.

He was honored with the “Prize of the Public” at the “Besançon Film Festival of France” in 1981.

In 1992, he received the Andhra Pradesh state Raghupathi Venkaiah Award, and the civilian honor Padma Shri for his contribution to the field of arts.

In 2017, he was conferred with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the highest award in Indian cinema.

Viswanath started his film career as an audiographer and in sixty years, he has directed 53 feature films in a variety of genres, including films based on performing arts, visual arts, and aesthetics.

He received international recognition for his works, and is known for blending parallel cinema with mainstream commercial cinema.

Viswanath’s filmography is known for addressing the issues of caste, colour, disability, gender discrimination, misogyny, alcoholism and socio-economic challenges through liberal arts medium.[1][2]

His directorial works which are produced by Poornodaya Movie Creations were screened to special mention at the Moscow International Film Festival; such films were dubbed into Russian language and have been theatrically released in Moscow.

Kasinadhuni who studied Intermediate from Guntur Hindu College, and holds a BSc degree from Andhra Christian College of Andhra University, began his career as a sound recordist at Vauhini Studios in Madras, where his father was an associate.

Latter. Viswanath made his entry into film direction at Annapurna Pictures under Adurthi Subba Rao and K. Ramnoth.

He wished to work as an assistant to director K. Balachander and Bapu.

In 1951 he started as an assistant director in the Telugu-Tamil Film Pathala Bhairavi.

In 1965, Viswanath debuted as a director with Telugu film Aatma Gowravam, which won the Nandi Award for Best Feature Film of the year.

Viswanath followed it up with drama films Chelleli Kapuram (1971), Sarada (1973), O Seeta Katha (1974) and Jeevana Jyoti (1975) which are women-centric films.[1][2] It was in Siri Siri Muvva (1976) that the artistic touch in his craft first became visible.

Sankarabharanam (1980) highlights the neglect of traditional Indian music under the increasing influence of western music. The film brings out the grandeur of Carnatic music, the traditional South Indian music towards the end.

The film broke many commercial records by running for over one year in cinemas.