Ashoke Viswanathan (also Asoke, born in 1959) is a

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

Indian filmmaker and theatre personality, based in

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

, India.

Personal life

Viswanathan is the son of actor N. Viswanathan. He is a Mathematics graduate from

St. Xavier's College, Kolkata St. Xavier's College is a private, Catholic, autonomous higher education college under Calcutta University run by the Calcutta Province of the Society of Jesus in Kolkata, India. It was founded by the Jesuits in 1860 and named after St. F ...

and a graduate in film direction from the Film and Television Institute of India. He is married to Madhumanti Maitra, a lecturer at a girls' college and an anchor. He has a daughter, Anusha, who is an actor.

Career

Viswanathan is currently a Professor and Head of Department of Producing For Film and TV specialisation and Dean (Film Wing) at

Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI) is a film and television institute located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Named after Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray, the institute provides higher and professional education and technical exp ...

and an occasional lecturer at

Jadavpur University Jadavpur University is a public state university located in Jadavpur, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. It was established in 1905 as ''Bengal Technical Institute'' and was converted into Jadavpur University in 1955. In 2022, it was ranked fourth am ...

. He has made award-winning features and documentaries, such as 2014's "The Lighthouse, The Ocean and The Sea", an exploration of the intellectual relationships between

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...

Romain Rolland Romain Rolland (; 29 January 1866 – 30 December 1944) was a French dramatist, novelist, essayist, art historian and mystic who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915 "as a tribute to the lofty idealism of his literary production a ...

and

Kalidas Nag Kalidas Nag ( bn, Kalidas Nag; 16 January 1892 – 9 November 1966) was an Indian historian, writer and parliamentarian. He was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 1952 and served till 1954. Early years Kalidas was born to Babu Matilal Nag. He ma ...

. Two of Viswanathan's films have won national awards: his debut film "Shunya Theke Shuru" and "Kichu Sanglap Kichu Prolap" He has also directed commercial films like "Sesh Sanghat", starring mainstream actors Jaya Prada and Jackie Shroff, and "Gumshuda" in Hindi, Malayalam and Tamil ("Vaira Kolaigal"), a

whodunit A ''whodunit'' or ''whodunnit'' (a colloquial elision of "Who asdone it?") is a complex plot-driven variety of detective fiction in which the puzzle regarding who committed the crime is the main focus. The reader or viewer is provided with the c ...

based on Sherlock Holmes, targeted at a mass audience. He has served as the Chairperson of the Jury for non-feature films for the National Film Awards. 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 Dhaka International Film Festival ( bn, ঢাকা আন্তর্জাতিক চলচ্চিত্র উৎসব) is a biennial film festival held in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Established in 1992, the festival was initially organized on a ...

, and the Ipswich Film Festival, among others. Viswanathan has represented India at the Cambridge Seminar on contemporary British writing, held at Downing College, Cambridge (1997).

Filmography

Awards

Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film of a Director The Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film of a Director is one of the National Film Awards presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organization set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India. It is one of seve ...

, 1993, for '' Shunya Theke Shuru''. * National Film Award – Special Jury Award, 1998, for ''

Kichhhu Sanlap Kichhu Pralap ''Kichhhu Sanlap Kichhu Pralap'' ( en, Dialogue and Delirium) is a 1999 Indian Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic ...

''.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Viswanathan, Ashoke 1959 births Living people Film directors from Kolkata Bengali film directors Director whose film won the Best Debut Feature Film National Film Award