Ashoke Viswanathan

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

Ashoke Viswanathan
Ashoke Viswanathan (left) at the IFFI in 2006
Born1959 (age 63–64)
NationalityIndian
Alma materSt. Xavier's College, Kolkata, Film and Television Institute of India
OccupationFilm director
SpouseMadhumanti Maitra
ChildrenAnusha
AwardsIndira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film of a Director, National Film Award – Special Jury Award

Personal life

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

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
TitleYearCredited asNotesRef(s)
DirectorWriterProducerOther
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

References
  1. 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. "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. 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.
  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. 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.
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