Kasinadhuni Viswanath

Kasinadhuni Viswanath, popularly known as Kalatapasvi Viswanath, was an Indian film director, screenwriter, actor, and audiographer, who mainly worked in Telugu films. He was one of the greatest auteurs of Telugu cinema, who received international recognition for his works, and was 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, the Padma Shri Award in 1992, and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the highest award in Indian cinema, in 2017. Viswanath started his film career as an audiographer and in sixty years, he 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 Festival¹. 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[^10^], and AISFM Film Festival respectively¹¹. Viswanath was 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 were 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 Moscow¹²¹³. Viswanath was married to Kasinadhuni Jayalakshmi. The couple had three children: Padmavathi Devi, Nagendranath (alumnus of Andhra University,Vishakapatnam), and Ravindranath (alumnus of XLRI Jamshedpur and BITS Pilani). His cousins include the singers S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, S. P. Sailaja, and actor Chandra Mohan. Viswanath was unwell for some time and was suffering from age-related issues. He passed away at a hospital in Hyderabad on February 2, 2023, at the age of 92¹⁴.