A doyen of classical music and dance in Telugu cinema

Reminiscing about his beginnings in the industry Viswanath remembers he wanted to be a part of the administrative department and so had joined Vahini Studios as an apprentice. BN Reddy however had other plans for him; he wanted Viswanath to get hands on experience with various departments like editing, cinematography, sound recording etc and eventually take him under his tutelage into the directorial department. Before this could happen, actor Akkineni Nageswara Rao recognised Viswanath’s creative streak and offered him an independent directorial venture after working for a year under Adurthi Subba Rao in Annapurna Studios. His first directorial film, “Aatma Gauravam” itself bagged a Nandi. “Vundamma Bottupedtha” the second venture though not commercially a great success got phenomenal mileage with the music.

In the interview he muses that his trademark films, classical music or dance centric movies phase, may have begun with “Sirisiri Muvva”. The pinnacle creation slot in Telugu Films is undoubtedly a coveted place for many films but K Viswanath’s “Shankarabharam” stands high and tall above all the rest. An innate passion to reacquaint the current generation to our rich classical music culture was his motivation that drove him to make the film. Looking back at his experiences working with Kamal Hassan, Chiranjeevi, Venkatesh, Shobhan Babu, etc., he attributes the success of the films to the coordinated work of all his cast and crew who worked without any prejudice. He incorporated even the tiniest of ideas from each member working on the film making the final output the best possible.

He believes he got lucky with the subjects and supportive producers which enabled him to make some of the biggest musical hits of our generation. With an unprecedented amount of Golden Nandi Awards to his credit, K Viswanath has scribed an era for himself in the history of Indian Film Industry. Some of his best works include “Chelleli Kapuram” (1971), “O Seeta Kadha” (1974), “Sankarabharanam” (1979), “Sagara Sangamam” (1983), “Swarna Kamalam” (1988), “Aapadbandhavudu” (1992).

On a closing note Viswanath makes an appeal to the audience to encourage good films. Mere lip service will not help improve the standard of films being made. Only when the producers have an assurance that the audience will appreciate and watch a movie can they come forward and produce good content.