Kasinadhuni Viswanath (19 February 1930 – 2 February 2023) was an Indian film director, screenwriter, lyricist and actor. One of the greatest auteurs of Telugu cinema, he received international recognition for his works, and is known for blending parallel cinema with mainstream cinema. 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 Cinema of India.
Viswanath started his film career as an audiographer and in sixty years, he has directed 53 feature films in a variety of genres, including central themes based on performing arts, visual arts, aesthetics, melodrama, and poetry. 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.
Viswanath's classic blockbusters Sankarabharanam (1980) and Sagara Sangamam (1983) were featured among CNN-IBN's 100 greatest Indian films of all time. His directorial works Sankarabharanam and Saptapadi (1981) fetched the National Film Awards for Best Popular Feature Film and Best Feature Film on National Integration, respectively. Sankarabharanam, was featured at the 8th IFFI, the Tashkent Film Festival, the Moscow International Film Festival, and the Besançon Film Festival.
Viswanath's Swathi Muthyam (1986) was India's official entry to the 59th Academy Awards. Swathi Muthyam, Sagara Sangamam and Sirivennela (1986), were featured at the Asia-Pacific Film Festival. Swayamkrushi (1987) was screened to special mention at the Moscow International Film Festival. Sankarabharanam, Sagara Sangamam, Sruthilayalu (1987), Swarnakamalam (1988), and Swathi Kiranam (1992) were featured in the Indian Panorama sections of IFFI, Ann Arbor Film Festival, and AISFM Film Festival respectively.
Viswanath is a recipient of five National Film Awards, seven state Nandi Awards, ten Filmfare Awards South, and a Filmfare Award in Hindi. 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.
Early life
Kasinadhuni Viswanath was born on 19 February 1930 in Repalle of Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh. His parents were Kasinadhuni Subramanyam and Kasinadhuni Saraswathy (Saraswathamma) and his ancestral roots come from Pedapulivarru, Andhra Pradesh, a small village on the banks of River Krishna. Kasinadhuni was his family name, Viswanath was his given name. Viswanath studied Intermediate from Guntur Hindu College, and holds a BSc degree from Andhra Christian College of Andhra University. He began his career as a sound recordist at Vauhini Studios in Madras, where his father was an associate. There, he apprenticed under the guidance of A Krishnan, who was the Head of Sound Engineering at Vauhini. Viswanath and A Krishnan developed a close rapport and later after the former made the transition into film direction, he would always bounce ideas off the 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.
