One of the legends of the Indian cinema, K. Vishwanath is the recipient of Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the highest award in Indian cinema, and the coveted Padma Shri and the winner of five National Film Awards, 11 Filmfare Awards, and six State Nandi Awards. The awards speak volumes of the caliber of the man who has been active in the film industry for more than 60 years. A versatile artist, K. Vishwanath is an Indian audiographer, director, actor, and screenwriter who works mainly in Telugu, Tamil and Hindi cinema.
Having started his career in the film industry as an audiographer with the National Film Award-winning movie, Todi Kodallu in 1957, he subsequently worked as an assistant director in films like Iddaru Mitrulu (1961), and Doctor Chakavarthy (1964), before eventually making his directorial debut with Aata Gowravam (1965). As a director, he came to known as the man who successful blended parallel cinema with mainstream commercial cinema.
The experimental director, Vishwanath in his illustrious career directed more than 53 films across different genres including films based on visual arts, aesthetics and performing arts. Some of his classical blockbusters include Sankarabharanam (1979), Saptapadi and Sagara Sangamam (1983), which was listed in the CNN-IBN's top 100 greatest films of all time.
The director-turned-actor made his debut on the silver screen with his own directorial venture Subha Sankalpam (1995) and over the years starred in more than 50 films across Tamil, Telugu and Hindi languages. Some of his notable film credits as an actor include Seema Simham (2002), Lakshmi Narasimha (2004), Yaaradi Nee Mohini (2008), Rajapattai (2011), Lingaa (2014), Uttama Villain (2015) and Sollividava (2018), a Tamil drama directed by Arjun Sarja.