K.Viswanath wins Phalke award

The announcement. I have seen only two and half of his movies. He was born in Pedapulivarru on the banks of Krishna, Samudrala Raghavacharya was from the same place. Ghantasala married in that village. I was morn two miles away on an island inthe river Krishna and studied grade 9 in Pedapulivarru. It was originally a agrahara though the signs were not evident to me in 1951-52. Viswanath was not known then. But the other two were well known. I remember a visit byGhantasala. There were no toilets in most homes and he had to go out with a tumbler of water out to defecate. We children followed for a while. He had to stop on the way when village elders stopped to talk to him. Anyway, being away from home and then india, I did not see too many Telugu films. My introduction some of Viswanath films is through the wonderful blog of Minai. Here are her write ups about  of Viswanath films
Saptapadi 1981 and
Swarna Kamalam 1988
Here is Sri Atluri on Saptapadi In Movie Retrospect which has comments about making the movie.