Ashoke Viswanathan

Ashoke Viswanathan Biography

Ashoke Viswanathan is a National award winning film director associated with Bengali film industry. He is also a theatre personality. He is the son of N. Viswanathan, popularly known as Calcutta Viswanathan in the Tamil film industry, who later settled in Kolkata. Ashoke’s debut film "Shunya Theke Shuru" won Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film of a Director at National Film Awards 1993. In 1998, his film "Kichu Sanglap Kichu Prolap” won National Film Award – Special Jury Award. Thus he is a recipient of two national film awards in the 1990s. He is also a professor at Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, and currently serving as the Head of Department of Producing For Film and TV specialization.

Ashoke Viswanathan was born in Kolkata in 1959. He is of Tamil origin. His father N. Viswanathan, a cine artist - moved to Kolkata at a young age and later worked here. After completing his graduation from St. Xavier's College, Kolkata, Ashoke enrolled at the prestigious FTII Pune, to study filmmaking. Apart from filmmaking, he also took teaching as his profession, and taught students filmmaking. Apart from feature films, he has also made several award winning documentaries. “The Lighthouse, The Ocean and The Sea" in 2014 is one among his highly acclaimed documentary works.

He started his film journey in the 1990s, and his debut film "Shunya Theke Shuru" won Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film of a Director. Though he is mostly associated with offbeat movies, he has also done commercial movies like "Sesh Sanghat". He has also chaired as a jury member in National film awards committee. Many of his feature films and short features have been included in Indian Panorama sections in different years, and also showcased at different international film festivals.

Published: July 29, 2018

Updated: July 29, 2018