Salutations To The Legend!

Catching His Glimpse At A Young Age Was Golden Opportunity

Coming to Guruvu Garu, Sri K Vishwanath Garu, I would consider my association with him an absolute honour, a memorable blessing. In 2008, he was invited as the chief guest for my solo recital and he obliged. After the programme, I was on Cloud Nine as I got a call from Guru Garu saying they would like to consider me for a project and I remember going there with my mom and dad. For some reasons unknown that project got shelved.

Cut to seven years later in 2015, I was a newly married girl, we were in Chennai then, and I got a call yet again from Sri KV garu after he watched a TV show that I was hosting and asked me to anchor ‘Vishwanath Amrutham’ for ETV. I remembering coming to Hyderabad and meeting him, by when the shoot was in progress and it was so beautiful meeting him regularly. A couple of live shows and a TV documentary followed, titled ‘Kalatapaswi’.

To encapsulate my experiences with him, it feels right to say he primarily designed my aesthetics of Indian cinema and the characterisation of a female protagonist, the power of ‘Saatvika Bhavalu’ as seen in the theory of Bharatanatyam, the subtlest form of communication that he has mastered. I consider myself fortunate to have heard him decode his own magic. He would remember even the minutest of details of his movies filmed 30 years ago and would explain all of it so intrinsically.

The whole world has watched his movies and I will always remember understanding them through his lens – these are moments to be cherished my entire life. Each of his films is a culture documentary and I think there is so much to learn about music and dance from it. As a person, he is sensitive to people around him and aware of his space. He is very articulate and he knows what he is speaking. My interactions with him give me the feeling of a small gurukulam workshop. Every time I would meet him, I realised that whatever he showed in his movies is not a garb, he is like that in real life. He is someone who wears his emotions on his sleeve and who is so true to his heart.

We were very keen of doing another collaboration with him, but owning to some limitations and his family’s concerns about his health, it remains a dream. A family member once told me that if he took up a project, he would really meditate all through his waking hours, sometimes skip sleep too.  Today when I look back, I realise what a golden opportunity it was to have caught his glimpse at a young age. On a number of occasions, he has mentioned that he would have loved to cast me in one of his films. That sentence means a lot to me and it did translate with Rajmouli sir in Bahubaali 2, years later.

~ Ashrita Vemuganti Nanduri, Bharatanatyam dancer, actor, and anchor

Love For Arts

While my initial meeting with Sri K Viswanath Garu was a combination of fear and awe, he came across as warm and amicable. When he attended one of my programs, he sat through the evening. He preferred not to be disturbed or distracted by anyone as he had to watch the dance entirely. And it was the same in later performances too. This, I felt, is the most striking aspect about him – his genuine love and appreciation for arts!

~Sindhuja, Kuchipudi dancer

Blessed To Have Danced In His Presence

I consider myself blessed to have danced in the presence of Sri K Viswanath Garu and to hear the most divine words from him after the performance.From being an ardent fan with respect of rare thoughts depicted in his movies to being able to perform to the song from ‘Sagara Sangamam’, as a child, on the dining table to the stage for his 90th birthday with him watching me, his aura is something that, one could only be in awe of. Until date, I have not come across the true meaning of love as depicted in his film ‘Sagara Sangamam’ – subtle and so beautiful.  I wish the Legend a very happy birthday.

~Anita Peter, Mohiniyattam dancer

He was instrumental in me becoming a dancer

It was a great experience meeting him and performing Kuchipudi along with my students before him. As he was the one who motivated me to become a classical dancer from a software techie through his wonderful movies on Arts and classical dance. I never even dreamt of meeting him in my lifetime, but when I got an opportunity to meet him and to perform Kuchipudi in front of him, I really felt blessed.

~Jyothi Reddy, Kuchipudi dancer