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A university topper and gold medalist, with a doctorate
in Bio-chemistry, Mrs. Mohana Krishnaswamy has published
several post-doctoral research papers in various scientific
journals and is a winner of Hari Om Ashram’s Gold
Medal for research in Ayurveda. She was Honorary Director
of Jayendra Saraswathi College of Ayurveda at Nazarathpet.
Later, she was also a member of the Senate of the Madras
University.
If this is her scholarly face, the other facet to her
personality is that of a producer of 30 TV Serials and
around 200 Documentary films. She is a winner of the
IFUW International First Prize at Helsinki, for directing
‘How They Left Hell Behind’, on women’s
empowerment, and of the Creative Excellence Award at
the US International Film & Video Festival for two
other productions, besides two Awards for the Best Tamil
TV Serials. She is fluent in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu
besides being familiar with Urdu and Marathi, a trained
Bharata Natyam dancer and Hindustani vocalist.
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Her active involvement with Media commenced with the
Hindi dubbing of the internationally acclaimed Four-hour
documentary, INDUS VALLEY TO INDIRA GANDHI.
She supervised the translation of Dr S Krishnaswamy’s
English script into Hindi, and directed the dubbed version.
Even as the Hindi dubbing work had just commenced,
Mrs Indira Gandhi was tragically assassinated. Mr Rajiv
Gandhi desired that the Hindi version should be telecast
during the mourning period. Dr Mohana faced the challenge
and completed the dubbing within nine days to enable
Doordarshan to telecast the Hindi version on time. It
resulted in her change of track from Academics to Media.
She became the Chairperson of Krishnaswamy Associates.
Dr Mohana initiated diversification in Krishnaswamy
Associates (which was specializing only in non-fiction
films) by producing TV fiction and entertainment serials.
She pioneered the production of Hindi TV serials with
a Tamil ambiance such as the Costume Drama, UPASANA
based on the ancient Tamil twin-classics Silapadikaram
and Manimegalai. She also produced Sri
Aurobindo’s SAVITRI, in Tamil, as a stage
show and as dance-drama for television, which won the
Award for Creative Excellence at the US International
Film & Video Festival. Under Dr. Mohana’s
initiative, Krishnaswamy Associates conducted a 4-Day
SATHBAVANA UTSAV – a Festival of dance
devoted to Communal Harmony at Chennai, co-sponsored
by The Hindu, in 2003. In recognition
of this, she received the INDIRA PRIYADARSHINI AWARD
in 2004.
She collaborated with Dr. S. Krishnaswamy in creating
the ambitious 18-episode TV Documentary Serial titled,
INDIAN IMPRINTS, on the impact of ancient India on South
East Asia over the last two millennia, after extensive
filming in over 100 locations. This was telecast on
Doordarshan’s National Network, DD-Bharati and
DD-India, in 2008.
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