Kasinadhuni Viswanath (Telugu: కాశీనాధుని విశ్వనాధ్; 19 February 1930 – 2 February 2023), popularly known as "Kalatapasvi", was an Indian film director, screenwriter, lyricist and actor who predominantly worked in Telugu cinema. One of the greatest auteurs of Indian cinema,^[1][2][3][4] he received international recognition for his works, and is known for blending parallel cinema with mainstream cinema.^{[lower-alpha 1]} He was honuored with the "Prize of the Public" at the "Besançon Film Festival of France" in 1981.^[7] In 1992, he received the Andhra Pradesh state Raghupathi Venkaiah Award, and the civilian honour 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.^[8][9][10]

Viswanath started his film career as an audiographer and over 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.^[5][3][4] Viswanath's filmography is known for addressing the issues of caste, colour, disability, gender discrimination, misogyny, alcoholism and socio-economic challenges^[11] through liberal arts medium.^[3][4]

Viswanath's classic blockbusters Sankarabharanam (1980) and Sagara Sangamam (1983) were featured among CNN-IBN's 100 greatest Indian films of all time.^[12] 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,^[13][14] the Tashkent Film Festival, the Moscow International Film Festival,^[15] and the Besançon Film Festival.^[16]

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.^[17] Swayamkrushi (1987) was screened to special mention at the Moscow International Film Festival.^[18] Sankarabharanam, Sagara Sangamam, Sruthilayalu (1987), Swarnakamalam (1988), and Swathi Kiranam (1992) were featured in the Indian Panorama sections of IFFI,^[19][20] Ann Arbor Film Festival,^[21][22] and AISFM Film Festival respectively.^[23]

Viswanath is a recipient of five National Film Awards, seven state Nandi Awards, ten Filmfare Awards South, and a Filmfare Award in Hindi.^[24] 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.^[25][26]

Viswanath was born on 19 February 1930 in a Telugu family to Kasinadhuni Subramanyam and Kasinadhuni Saraswathy (Saraswathamma) in Repalle of Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh.^[27] His ancestral roots come from Pedapulivarru, Andhra Pradesh, a small village on the banks of River Krishna.^[28][29] Viswanath studied Intermediate from Guntur Hindu College, and holds a BSc degree from Andhra Christian College of Andhra University.^[30] 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.^[31][32] He wished to work as an assistant to director K. Balachander and Bapu.^[30]

During his early career, Viswanath was associated with Adurthi Subba Rao on National Award-winning films such as Mooga Manasulu (1964) and Doctor Chakravarty (1964).^[3][4] Viswanath scripted Sudigundalu (1968), and directed works such as Aatma Gowravam (1965), O Seeta Katha (1974) and Jeevana Jyothi (1975) which garnered the state Nandi Awards, and were screened at the Asian and African film Festival at Tashkent.^[33][5]

In 1951 he started as an assistant director in the Telugu-Tamil Film Pathala Bhairavi (1951). In 1965, Viswanath debuted as a director with Telugu film Aatma Gowravam (1965), 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.^[3][4] It was in Siri Siri Muvva (1976) that the artistic touch in his craft first became visible.^[3][4]

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. Bhaskaran, a media and film researcher from Chennai has documented, in his study of South Indian music culture, how Sankarabharanam contributed to the revival of Carnatic music in a big way.^[34] The film broke many commercial records by running for over one year in cinemas. In a recent study published in Journal of Dance, Movements & Spiritualities published by "Intellect Group" of the United Kingdom, C. S. H. N. Murthy, a media and film studies scholar from India, has demonstrated how Viswanath's filmography embraces a wide spectrum of characters that include mentally and physically challenged subjects as well, like the film Sarada (1973), which exploits a psychologically deranged woman, Swathi Muthyam (1986), which exploits an autistic man's humanism, Sirivennela (1986) which revels in situations between deaf and dumb characters, and Kalam Marindi (1972), which dwells on characters stuck in a caste-based society.^[3][4]

Film researcher, C. S. H. N. Murthy observed that Viswanath's films offer a pathway towards inclusiveness, affecting positive spiritual change at both personal and social levels. Situating the content in the broad arena of de-westernizing media studies, through immersive and culturally embedded perspectives, Murthy endeavoured to offer modern and postmodern dimensions in Viswanath's films.^[3][4]

Viswanath was married to Kasinadhuni Jayalakshmi. Actor Chandra Mohan, and singers S. P. Balasubrahmanyam and S. P. Sailaja were his cousins.^[42]

Viswanath died on 2 February 2023, at the age of 92, in Hyderabad.^[43][44][45]

Honorary doctorate

• Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University