Ashoke Viswanathan

Bengali Indian filmmaker and theatre personality

Ashoke Viswanathan

Ashoke Viswanathan (left) at the IFFI in 2006

Born| 1959 (age 65-66)
Nationality| Indian
Alma mater| St. Xavier's College, Kolkata, Film and Television Institute of India
Occupation| Film director
Spouse| Madhumanti Maitra
Children| Anusha
Awards| Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film of a Director, National Film Award – Special Jury Award

Ashoke Viswanathan (also Asoke, born in 1959) is a Bengali Indian filmmaker and theatre personality, based in Kolkata, India.[1][2][3]

## Personal life

[edit]

Viswanathan is the son of actor N. Viswanathan.[4] He is a Mathematics graduate from St. Xavier's College, Kolkata and a graduate in film direction from the Film and Television Institute of India.[5] He is married to Madhumanti Maitra, a lecturer at a girls' college and an anchor.[6] He has a daughter, Anusha, who is an actor.[7]

## Career

[edit]

Viswanathan is currently a Professor and Head of Department of Producing For Film and TV specialisation and Dean (Film Wing) [8] at Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute and an occasional lecturer at Jadavpur University.[5]

He has made award-winning features and documentaries,[1] such as 2014's "The Lighthouse, The Ocean and The Sea", an exploration of the intellectual relationships between Rabindranath Tagore, Romain Rolland and Kalidas Nag.[9][10] Two of Viswanathan's films have won national awards: his debut film "Shunya Theke Shuru" and "Kichu Sanglap Kichu Prolap"[11][12]

He has also directed commercial films like "Sesh Sanghat", starring mainstream actors Jaya Prada and Jackie Shroff,[13] and "Gumshuda" in Hindi, Malayalam and Tamil ("Vaira Kolaigal"), a whodunit based on Sherlock Holmes, targeted at a mass audience.[11]

He has served as the Chairperson of the Jury for non-feature films for the National Film Awards.[14]

Three of his feature films and two of his short features have been included in the INDIAN PANORAMA sections of IFFI '94, 1999, 2001, 2002 and 2005. His films have been shown at the Commonwealth Film Festival, Manchester, the Pyongyang International Film Festival, the Dhaka International Film Festival, and the Ipswich Film Festival, among others.[15]

Viswanathan has represented India at the Cambridge Seminar on contemporary British writing, held at Downing College, Cambridge (1997).[16]

## Filmography

[edit]

Title | Year | Credited as | Notes | Ref(s)

|
|
|
|

Director | Writer | Producer | Other
Shunya Theke Shuru | 1993  | Yes  | Yes  | No  | Yes  | as Ashok Viswanathan  |
Kichhhu Sanlap Kichhu Pralap | 1999  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | No  |  |
Byatikrami | 2003  | Yes  | No  | Yes  | Yes  | planning  |
Andhakarer Shabdo | 2006  | Yes  | Yes  | No  | No  | screenplay  |
Sesh Sanghat | 2009  | Yes  |  |  |  |  |
1+1=3 Ora Tinjon | 2015  | Yes  | No  | No  | No  |  |

## Awards

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* Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film of a Director, 1993, for Shunya Theke Shuru.[17]
* National Film Award – Special Jury Award, 1998, for Kichhhu Sanlap Kichhu Pralap.[5]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b Ananda Lal, ed. (2004). The Oxford Companion to Indian Theatre. Oxford University Press. pp. xx, 476. ISBN 9780195644463.
2. ^ "Making it work". The Telegraph. 17 December 2005. Archived from the original on 16 August 2014. Retrieved 16 August 2014.
3. ^ Bhāratīya Painoramā. Directorate of Film Festivals, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. 2006. pp. 41–42.
4. ^ "Actor N Viswanathan dies at 81". The Indian Express. 18 November 2010. Retrieved 16 August 2014.
5. ^ a b c "46th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. pp. 14–15. Retrieved 16 August 2014.
6. ^ "Making it work". Telegraph India. 17 December 2015. Retrieved 16 September 2021.
7. ^ Ruman Ganguly (19 March 2017). "Anusha Viswanathan to play Hetal Parekh". The Times of India. Retrieved 16 September 2021.
8. ^ "Satyajit ray Film & Television Institute".
9. ^ Prithvijit Mitra (4 August 2014). "Documentary on scholar to explore Tagore-Rolland friendship". The Times of India. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
10. ^ Ranjan Das Gupta (15 August 2014). "Chronicle of interesting friendships". The Hindu. Retrieved 15 August 2014.
11. ^ a b Gowri Ramnarayan (28 August 2010). "His experiments with films". The Hindu. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
12. ^ S. Rangarajan (7 October 1994). "Untitled". Frontline. Vol. 11, no. 16–20\. p. 87. Retrieved 13 August 2014.16–20&rft.pages=87&rft.date=1994-10-07&rft.au=S.+Rangarajan&rft_id=https://books.google.com/books?id=bKVKAQAAIAAJ&q;=%22Ashoke+Viswanathan%22&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Ashoke+Viswanathan" class="Z3988">
13. ^ "Sesh Sanghat Movie Review". The Times of India. 1 November 2009. Retrieved 16 August 2014.
14. ^ "Jury Profiles" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. 2014. p. 8\. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 16 August 2014.
15. ^ "Resume". www.ashokeviswanathan.com. Archived from the original on 22 May 2014. Retrieved 19 August 2014.
16. ^ "Ashoke Viswanathan – Film Director". .mindscreen.co.in. Archived from the original on 19 August 2014. Retrieved 19 August 2014.
17. ^ "41st National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. pp. 14–15. Retrieved 16 August 2014.

## External links

[edit]

* Ashoke Viswanathan at IMDb
* Official website

*[Ref(s)]: Reference(s)