Kasinathuni Viswanath felicitated for Dadasaheb Phalke award

The Akkineni Kalaparishat of Ongole has felicitated the Kalatapaswi, film director Kasinathuni Viswanath on Monday for receiving the Dadasaheb Phalke award recently. The Kalaparishat presented a Swarnakankanam (golden bracelet) to Viswanath for his services to the Telugu film industry. The veteran director shared credit for his success with the actors, musicians and all technicians worked with him.

The priests offered a Pruna Kumbha welcome to the Kalatapaswi at the venue, the A1 Convention Hall in Ongole amid full fanfare for the director. Industrialist Siddha Pandurangarao presented the golden bracelet to the ace director as a gratitude for his never aging master pieces in Telugu cinema. The organisers, patrons from the town felicitated him with a number of variety garlands to show their respect.

The special ‘Sangeeta Vibhavari’ with songs from the films of Viswanath received a great response when they were sung by Maharajapuram Ramu, Akunuri Sarada, Padmavati, Sugandhini, and others. The dance performances by the dancers from Nalinipriya Kuchipudi Nrityaniketan received applause from all audience.

Siddha Raghavarao, the minister for environment, forests, science and technology said that Viswanath, being a director in Tollywood, is a gift to all Telugus. He said that all of his films conveyed messages about culture and values of the land. He said that Viswanath glorified the history of Telugus by receiving the Dadasaheb Phalke award and wished many more producers and directors to come forward and make movies in the line of him.

Actor Giribabu said that he always feels bad for turning down two chances of working under the direction of Viswanath due to lack of call sheets. He said he is in some way satisfied to have worked as a co-actor with him under SV Krishna Reddy's Vajram. Viswanath said that he is overwhelmed by the response of the public and thanked all from the bottom of his heart. He said that all his success is due to the cooperation of the actors, musicians and all technicians who worked for his films.

He said that he tried to record the Telugus culture, heritage, music, dance and rituals through his films through the humanitarian values. He asked the audience to never forget their roots and parents after which he thanked the Ongole public for sharing their love and care to him.

The interesting anchoring of Ponnuru Venkata Srinivasulu, RISE college professor Prasa Mani, Kalaparishat organiser Krishnaiah made the audience to glued to their seats. Bharateeyam president Gottipati Satyavani, Kalaimamani BNN, Siddha Venkateswara Rao, Ongole DSP Guntupalli Srinivasa Rao, Andhra Bank DGM Ramana Murthy, Dr Machiraju Ramachandra Rao and others extolled the works of the Dadasaheb Phalke awardee Viswanath.