Hari Viswanath

Born on 18 December, Hari Viswanath, originally named as Hariharan Viswanathan, was raised in Chennai, India. He graduated as a civil engineer and later pursued his dream of being a film director. As a movie director, screenwriter, and producer, Viswanath so far produced three films which won national and international acclaim. He claims the reason beneath his endearing passion for film arises from his father’s presence on stage. With that, he slowly built a path and drove himself into the field of cinema. 

His debut project, “Idukkan” is a Tamil short film based on real life incidents. It depicts an old man struggling to earn money to tend his wife, who is sick and bed-ridden. A beggar enters the old man’s life and with his tactics in tackling life, changes the lives of the old couple. The film stars Lakshmanan as the old man who sells coconuts and Ramanan as the beggar. Ramanan is an assistant director and actor, whose recent release was The Rat: A Sexy tale in 2011. 

The movie, “Idukkan” won the Best Short Film Award in Norway Tamil Film Festival 2013. Since the success of his debut film, Viswanath worked diligently in directing and writing stories for his films. His next project which is another short film, Pesum Virus, was released on 9 August 2013. Another story based on the lives of ordinary people, Pesun Virus, starred an auto driver who goes about his life without a worry in mind. The life of the ebullient driver takes a sharp turn the other way around with a single phone call. The movie is about the mystery behind the call, which so drastically changes the man’s attitude. The film stars Sricharan as the auto driver. Sricharan is an actor famous for his movies Billa 2 and Thani Oruvan.

Hari Viswanath’s latest project is the movie known as “ Radiopetti Click to look into! >> Read More... ,” which is his debut as a feature film. The movie was acknowledged in both national and international film competitions such as Busan International Film Festival 2015 and Indian Panorama for 46th International Film Festival of India at Panaji, Goa. The movie is about a 70-year-old man whose entire world revolves around the radio, which was a gift from his dad during his childhood. Though the man is pretty old, his entire day starts with turning on the radio. The movie revolves around the incidents the old man faces when one day he loses the radio so precious to him. Being emotionally attached to the object, he undergoes psychological disturbances. The movie starred Lakshmanan, the actor from Idukkan, Shobana Mohan, and TVV Ramanujam. The music was composed by Richard Ford, a British music composer, and Saravan Natrajan is the cinematographer. 

Viswanath dedicated the movie to his grandfather, who is 89 years old and wished to celebrate their relation. The movie won the KNN Audience Award in the competition at the Busan International Film Festival 2015, and it is the first Tamil movie to do so. Encouraged by the positive criticism, Viswanath is looking forward to a theatrical release in 2016.