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In 2009, the President of India conferred the PADMASHRI Award on Dr. S.Krishnaswamy, Writer-Producer-Director of Documentary Films and TV Serials. In 2005, he received the coveted LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD conferred by the US International Film & Video Festival, Los Angeles, and became the first Afro-Asian recipient of this honor in 40 years of that festival.
After studying Film & Television at Columbia University, New York, he collaborated with Prof Erik Barnouw and wrote the acclaimed “INDIAN FILM” (Columbia University Press 1963 & Oxford University Press 1980). Soon after he founded Krishnaswamy Associates in 1964, he won four National Awards for his short films, and the SPECIAL NATIONAL AWARD TO COMMEMORATE THE SILVER JUBILEE OF INDEPENDENCE, for his experimental film titled “I”. Among other important Awards received by him are The HON0R SUMMUS AWARD, in 1987, conferred by The Watumull Foundation, Hawaii; SEVA RATNA AWARD, conferred by The Former President of India, Dr.S.D.Sharma, on behalf of the Centenarian Trust, in 1999; FOR THE SAKE OF HONOR AWARD of Rotary International; and the TRIANGLE MEDIA AWARD at Leicester University, UK in 2005. In a career spanning 45 years he has made over 400 short films.
In 1974, he launched his ambitious INDUS VALLEY TO INDIRA GANDHI. Completed in 1976, Warner Bros acquired this internationally acclaimed 4-hour film, as the first Indian film distributed under a Hollywood Banner. His wife, Dr. Mohana Krishnaswamy, is the producer of all their films. The Krishnaswamys presented several short stories of renowned Tamil writers as Hindi TV serials. They also made the Hindi costume drama serial, UPASANA, based on the ancient Tamil twin epics, Silappadikaram and Manimegalai. His Fiction-based Tamil TV Serials have won much acclaim. He wrote the story and dialogue for VISAALAM, winner of the best TV story award.
To celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Indian independence, he made INDIA 5555 – on 5 millennia of civilizational values, 5 centuries of recent history, 5 decades of democracy and 5 years of a new economic policy. It was chosen by the White House and screened for President Bill Clinton preparing for his visit to India.
In 2008, Doordarshan (National Network) telecast his 18-episode TV Serial, titled INDIAN IMPRINTS, on the cultural impact of India on South East Asia over 2000 years. Based on intensive research in collaboration with his wife, Dr. Mohana Krishnaswamy, written and directed by Dr. S. Krishnaswamy, filmed in over 100 locations, in Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, INDIAN IMPRINTS is widely acclaimed as a creative and historical landmark.
He has addressed The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and The International Documentary Association at Los Angeles; The Washington Institute for Values, and The Woodrow Wilson Centre for International Scholars, in Washington DC; The IAMHIST at Gottingen, Germany; The Strasbourg (France) Conference of IIC; The AMIC Conference at Cheingmai, Thailand; The Documentary Symposium in Alma Ata, USSR; SAFMA (SAARC) Seminar and Film Festival at Kathmandu. He has held several honorary positions such as Secretary of the Jury for International Film Festival of India (1969), and Chairman of the Jury for National Film Awards for Non-Fiction films (1984 & 1991). He is a founder and Managing Trustee of The Catalyst Trust, a Civil Society organisation, with 200 Citizens Centers in Tamilnadu.
He was born in Chennai, on July 29, 1938 to freedom fighter and pioneer filmmaker ‘Director’ K. Subrahmanyam, and composer-musician Mrs. Meenakshi Subrahmanyam.
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