Filled with film and nationalistic fervour, S. Krishnaswamy, son of celebrated Tamil feature filmmaker of yesteryear, K. Subrahmanyam (1904-1971), found — much to his annoyance and anger — that what was shown about India on television channels in the United States in the 1960s was anything but positive. Mr. Krishnaswamy, then in his early 20s, was pursuing media studies at Columbia University. This experience drove him to produce documentaries about India, focusing especially on its rich history and culture.
It was against this backdrop that Mr. Krishnaswamy, upon completing his studies, launched his own firm — Krishnaswamy Associates — in 1963. Over the years, the entity went on to produce numerous films that constituted a valuable corpus, exploring the idea of India and presenting it in a manner that was considered by many as non-judgmental and non-didactic. Now called Krishnaswamy Associates Private Limited (KAPL), the company is celebrating its diamond jubilee in Chennai on February 12, with Nagaland Governor La. Ganesan as the chief guest.
The 85-year-old Krishnaswamy, who produced 900-odd films over the past six decades, became more prominent when his dream project and a four-hour-long film on Indian history, titled ‘Indus Valley to Indira Gandhi’, was released in December 1976. In fact, two of his earlier works — ‘The Brown Diamond’, which was made for the Neyveli Lignite Corporation, and ‘I’ — won national awards for the best documentary and the best short film in the first 25 years of Indian independence, respectively. A special feature of ‘Indus Valley to Indira Gandhi’, which was shot in 100 locations across the country, was that Warner Brothers, an American company, bought the rights for its international distribution. As they say, Mr. Krishnaswamy did not look back. Among his works were ‘Unknown Freedom Fighters’ (1978); ‘Rajaji’ (1979); ‘Kamaraj’ (1981); ‘With Apologies to Tagore’ (1987), a five-minute, hilarious portrayal of the state of the nation with animation; ‘Jaya Jaya Sankara’ (1991), a film on the Kanchi Mutt; and ‘Reality Behind Religion’ (1992), which emphasised the need for brotherhood and understanding among the followers of various religions. His other films covering political leaders included those on R. Venkataraman and C. Subramaniam, both released in 2002, and M.G. Ramachandran in 1984.
In the 1980s, Mr. Krishnaswamy produced films on the complex problems of Punjab and Sri Lanka, highlighting the operations of the Indian defence forces. The subject of electoral reforms did not escape his imagination, which was reflected in ‘Who Loses When Indian Wins’ (2006).
Hailing from a family of gifted artists and art producers, the veteran filmmaker made efforts to take Tamil literature to the national audience in the form of Hindi television serials, and chose Tamil classics ‘Silapathikaram’ and ‘Manimegalai’, apart from the works of many contemporary Tamil writers such as Jayakanthan and Devan.
In 2005, following Prasar Bharti’s approval of his proposal to highlight Indian influence on southeast Asia, he came out with ‘Indian Imprints’ and ‘A Different Pilgrimage’. While Mr. Krishnaswamy’s wife, Mohana, has been a co-producer all along, his daughters, Latha Krishna and Gita Krishna Raj, were involved in the production of a couple of works together. Ms. Latha has been directing many films, the latest being ‘Mahakavi Bharati’, a 26-episode docu drama being shown on DD Tamil on Sunday night.
