N. K. Vishwanathan Biography 
N. K. Vishwanathan was a film director associated with Tamil cinema. He was also known as a cinematographer in the industry. He worked as a cinematographer in Tamil cinema in the 1980s and became a full-fledged film director in the 1990s. Periya Veetu Pannakkaran in the year 1990 marked his directorial debut and he directed 9 more Tamil films after that. Out of 10 movies he directed 9 belonged to the decade of 1990s, while he returned from sabbatical to make his final film in 2009 – Jaganmohini starring Namitha, Raja and Nila in the lead roles. He died on 25 April 2017 due to cardiac arrest. As a cinematographer, he worked for more than 25 films in the 1980s and 2000s combined.
He was born on 23 April 1941. He started his film career in the 1970s and turned a successful cinematographer in the 1980s. He frequently worked with film director Rama Narayanan. It was N. K. Vishwanathan who recommended actor Sathyaraj for his first film role in Kamal Hassan starrer Sattam En Kaiyil. When film director T. N. Balu died during the shoot of a film, on insistence by lead actor Kamal Hassan, he completed the work of Sankarlal (1981). Still he continued as cinematographer throughout 1980s.
Some of his noted works as a cinematographer include - Meendum Kokila, Sankarlal, Engal Kural, Manaivi Solle Manthiram, Karaiyellam Shenbagapoo and more than two dozens of Tamil flicks. After his debut as a film director in 1990s, he continued making several entertainers. When he couldn’t succeed as a filmmaker, he returned to cinematography in the late 1990s. In 2009, he directed his last film, Jaganmohini. In 1996 he bagged Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Third Best Film for Purushan Pondatti.
Published: N/A
Updated: June 10, 2018
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