S. Krishnaswamy

S. Krishnaswamy
Born	Subramanyam Krishnaswamy (1938-07-29)29 July 1938 Madras, Madras Province, British India
Died	28 December 2025(2025-12-28) (aged 87) Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Occupation	Filmmaker author
Spouse(s)	Mohana Krishnaswamy (1969–2025)
Children	3
Parent(s)	Krishnaswami Subrahmanyam (father)
Relatives	Padma Subrahmanyam (sister) Raghuram (nephew) Hrishikesh (grand-nephew) Anirudh Ravichander (grand-nephew) Gayathri Raghuram (grand-niece)

Subramanyam Krishnaswamy (29 July 1938 – 28 December 2025) was an Indian documentary filmmaker and writer^[1] who won the Padma Shri award in 2009.^[2] His later works included three documentaries on the Indian influence in Southeast Asia: Indian Imprints, A Different Pilgrimage, and Tracking Indian Footmarks.^[3] Indian Imprints was broadcast on Doordarshan in 18 episodes.^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8]

Krishnaswamy died from heart disease on 29 December 2025 at a hospital in Chennai. He was aged 87.^[9]

Books[edit | edit source]

Indian Film (with Erik Barnouw) (Columbia University Press 1963, Oxford University Press 1980)

Awards[edit | edit source]

2009: Padma Shri^[10]
2009: Hamsadhwani Distinguished Citizen of the Year Award^[11]

Notes[edit | edit source]

↑ "Dr S Krishnaswamy outstanding contribution to non-fiction films". 12 October 2010.
↑ "Dr. S. Krisnaswamy".
↑ "Public Service Broadcasting Trust". Archived from the original on 14 March 2012. Retrieved 2 January 2011.
↑ Treasure trove of startling revelations
↑ "Krishnaswamy's 'Indian Imprints' explores India across South Asia"
↑ "Indian imprints: Taking India to Indians"
↑ Indian Imprints
↑ "Documentary explores Indian imprints in South-East Asia". The Hindu. 3 April 2008. Retrieved 8 August 2019.
↑ "Acclaimed documentary filmmaker S. Krishnaswamy passes away". The Hindu. 28 December 2025. Retrieved 28 December 2025.
↑ "Padma Awards" (PDF). Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 October 2015. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
↑ "Award conferred on S.Krishnaswamy", The Hindu, 19 August 2009, archived from the original on 22 August 2009

External links[edit | edit source]

Krishnaswamy Associates

v t e Recipients of Padma Shri in Art
1950s	Omkarnath Thakur (1955) Sthanam Narasimha Rao (1956) Sudhir Khastgir (1957) Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu (1957) Debaki Bose (1958) Shambhu Maharaj (1958) Nargis (1958) Satyajit Ray (1958) Devika Rani (1958)
1960s	Kattingeri Krishna Hebbar (1961) Bismillah Khan (1961) Raghunath Krishna Phadke (1961) Ashok Kumar (1962) Mehboob Khan (1963) Melville de Mellow (1963) Vinayak Pandurang Karmarkar (1964) Adi Pherozeshah Marzban (1964) P. C. Sorcar (1964) Guru Kunchu Kurup (1965) V. Nagaiah (1965) Ravishankar Raval (1965) Mrinalini Sarabhai (1965) Sivaji Ganesan (1966) M. F. Husain (1966) Sumitra Charat Ram (1966) P. Bhanumathi (1966) Daji Bhatawadekar (1967) Vasant Desai (1967) Siddheshwari Devi (1967) Mohammed Rafi (1967) Sashadhar Mukherjee (1967) Vinjamuri Venkata Lakshmi Narasimha Rao (1967) M. R. Acharekar (1968) Begum Akhtar (1968) Sharan Rani Backliwal (1968) Nikhil Banerjee (1968) Sunil Dutt (1968) Durga Khote (1968) Yamini Krishnamurthy (1968) Shankar–Jaikishan (1968) Ayodhya Prasad (1968) Akkineni Nageswara Rao (1968) N. T. Rama Rao (1968) Devi Lal Samar (1968) Vyjayanthimala (1968) Khwaja Ahmad Abbas (1969) David Abraham Cheulkar (1969) Narayan Shridhar Bendre (1969) S. D. Burman (1969) B. Saroja Devi (1969) Indrani Rahman (1969) Balraj Sahni (1969) S. N. Swamy (artist) (1969)
1970s	Sukumar Bose (1970) Prem Dhawan (1970) Ratna Fabri (1970) Gemini Ganesan (1970) Ritwik Ghatak (1970) Damayanti Joshi (1970) Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan (1970) Karl Jamshed Khandalavala (1970) Madhaviah Krishnan (1970) Rajendra Kumar (1970) Pankaj Mullick (1970) Kalamandalam Krishnan Nair (1970) Relangi (1970) Gummadi (1970) Vijay Raghav Rao (1970) V. Satyanarayana Sarma (1970) Maisnam Amubi Singh (1970) K. B. Sundarambal (1970) Avinash Vyas (1970) M. Balamuralikrishna (1971) Sankho Chaudhuri (1971) Manna Dey (1971) Tripti Mitra (1971) Vazhenkada Kunchu Nair (1971) Chenganoor Raman Pillai (1971) K. N. Dandayudhapani Pillai (1971) Shanta Rao (1971) Ravi (music director) (1971) Siyaram Tiwari (musician) (1971) Chiranjeet Chakraborty (1972) Girija Devi (1972) Vasudeo S. Gaitonde (1972) Sunil Janah (1972) Lalgudi Jayaraman (1972) Bhimsen Joshi (1972) Mahendra Kapoor (1972) Ram Kumar (artist) (1972) Hrishikesh Mukherjee (1972) Vazhuvoor Ramaiah Pillai (1972) Samta Prasad (1972) M. K. Radha (1972) Raghu Rai (1972) Krishna Reddy (1972) Waheeda Rehman (1972) Juthika Roy (1972) Suchitra Sen (1972) Gubbi Veeranna (1972) Sitara Devi (1973) T. N. Krishnan (1973) Kishan Maharaj (1973) Ramanathapuram C. S. Murugabhoopathy (1973) Thikkurissy Sukumaran Nair (1973) Uma Sharma (1973) S. G. Thakur Singh (1973) Pushkar Bhan (1974) Mani Madhava Chakyar (1974) Bindhyabasini Devi (1974) Naina Devi (1974) Girish Karnad (1974) Shriram Lagoo (1974) Kelucharan Mohapatra (1974) Nutan (1974) M. D. Ramanathan (1974) Som Nath Sadhu (1974) Emani Sankara Sastry (1974) Kripal Singh Shekhawat (1974) Manik Varma (1974) M. S. Gopalakrishnan (1975) Jasraj (1975) Amjad Ali Khan (1975) Gopi Krishna (1975) Sanjukta Panigrahi (1975) Basavaraj Rajguru (1975) Kalyanam Raghuramaiah (1975) M. S. Sathyu (1975) K. G. Subramanyan (1975) Gitchandra Tongbra (1975) K. J. Yesudas (1975) Shyam Benegal (1976) Raghunath Mohapatra (1976) Ram Narayan (1976) K. V. Narayanaswamy (1976) R. Nagendra Rao (1976) S. Somasundaram (1976) Parween Sultana (1976) Dhanraj Bhagat (1977) Bhupen Hazarika (1977) Sheik Chinna Moulana (1977) Alla Rakha (1977) Jehangir Sabavala (1977) Ghulam Rasool Santosh (1977)
1980s	B. V. Karanth (1981) Namagiripettai Krishnan (1981) Gambhir Singh Mura (1981) Dashrath Patel (1981) S. H. Raza (1981) Padma Subrahmanyam (1981) Allah Jilai Bai (1982) Ammannur Madhava Chakyar (1982) Jabbar Patel (1982) Virendra Prabhakar (1982) Gautam Vaghela (1982) Sirkazhi Govindarajan (1983) Gautam Vaghela (1982) Sirkazhi Govindarajan (1983) Sharafat Hussain Khan (1983) Nepal Mahato (1983) Handel Manuel (1983) Gulam Mohammed Sheikh (1983) Raghubir Singh (1983) Sobha Singh (1983) Habib Tanvir (1983) Ganga Devi (1984) Amitabh Bachchan (1984) Purushottam Das (1984) Adoor Gopalakrishnan (1984) Bhupen Khakhar (1984) Ben Kingsley (1984) Vinay Chandra Maudgalya (1984) Roshan Kumari (1984) Mavelikara Krishnankutty Nair (1984) N. Rajam (1984) Raja and Radha Reddy (1984) Nek Chand (1984) Ram Gopal Vijayvargiya (1984) Shanti Dave (1985) Asa Singh Mastana (1985) Laxman Pai (1985) Smita Patil (1985) Palghat R. Raghu (1985) Naseeruddin Shah (1985) Shankar Bapu Apegaonkar (1986) Kanika Banerjee (1986) Subrata Mitra (1986) Rajkumar Singhajit Singh (1986) Hisam-ud-din Usta (1986) K. Balachander (1987) Kumudini Lakhia (1987) Vijaya Mehta (1987) N. Ramani (1987) Aparna Sen (1987) Naresh Sohal (1987) Jitendra Abhisheki (1988) Shabana Azmi (1988) Teejan Bai (1988) Bikash Bhattacharjee (1988) Zakir Hussain (1988) Chindodi Leela (1988) Sudharani Raghupathy (1988) Sudarshan Sahoo (1988) Kudrat Singh (1988) Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman (1988) Jitendra Abhisheki (1988) Adyar K. Lakshman (1989) Haku Shah (1989) L. Subramaniam (1989) Ratan Thiyam (1989) Upendra Trivedi (1989)
1990s	Mohan Agashe (1990) G. Aravindan (1990) Prabha Atre (1990) Asgari Bai (1990) Gulab Bai (1990) Balwantrai Bhatt (1990) Diwaliben Bhil (1990) Raj Bisaria (1990) S. M. Ganapathy (1990) Kamal Haasan (1990) Bishamber Khanna (1990) Krishen Khanna (1990) Allu Ramalingaiah (1990) Tarun Majumdar (1990) Madhavi Mudgal (1990) Om Puri (1990) Kanak Rele (1990) Leela Samson (1990) Maharajapuram Santhanam (1990) Kapila Vatsyayan (1990) Ranbir Singh Bisht (1991) Bharat Gopy (1991) Ghulam Mustafa Khan (1991) Hafeez Ahmed Khan (1991) Shanno Khurana (1991) Pratima Barua Pandey (1991) Manu Parekh (1991) Shivkumar Sharma (1991) Gurcharan Singh (painter) (1991) Sharda Sinha (1991) Alarmel Valli (1991) Jaya Bachchan (1992) Pankaj Charan Das (1992) Biren De (1992) Srirangam Gopalaratnam (1992) Sabri Khan (1992) Sunita Kohli (1992) Madurai N. Krishnan (1992) Manoj Kumar (1992) Meera Mukherjee (1992) Asha Parekh (1992) Nataraja Ramakrishna (1992) Bhagaban Sahu (1992) Anandji Virji Shah (1992) Kalyanji Virji Shah (1992) Sundari K. Shridharani (1992) Tapan Sinha (1992) Muthiah Sthapati (1992) K. Viswanath (1992) Chitra Visweswaran (1992) Dipali Barthakur (1998) Mammootty (1998) Kunja Bihari Meher (1998) Shahir Krishnarao Sable (1998) Zohra Sehgal (1998) K. Ibomcha Sharma (1998) U. Srinivas (1998) Javed Akhtar (1999) Saryu Doshi (1999) Sulochana Latkar (1999) Sumati Mutatkar (1999) Shobha Deepak Singh (1999) Jagmohan Sursagar (1999) Ram V. Sutar (1999)
2000s	Kanhai Chitrakar (2000) Shekhar Kapur (2000) Hema Malini (2000) Anjolie Ela Menon (2000) Shubha Mudgal (2000) Alyque Padamsee (2000) A. R. Rahman (2000) Ramanand Sagar (2000) S. P. Balasubrahmanyam (2001) Aamir Raza Husain (2001) Padmaja Phenany Joglekar (2001) Mohammed Tayab Khan (2001) Sunil Kothari (2001) Nerella Venu Madhav (2001) Mohanlal (2001) Shobha Naidu (2001) D. V. S. Raju (2001) Avadhanam Sita Raman (2001) Siramdasu Venkata Rama Rao (2001) Thota Tharani (2001) W. D. Amaradeva (2002) Raj Begum (2002) Vishwa Mohan Bhatt (2002) Pushpa Bhuyan (2002) Rajan Devadas (2002) Darshana Jhaveri (2002) Abdul Latif Khan (2002) Mani Krishnaswami (2002) Fazal Mohammad (2002) Manorama (Tamil actress) (2002) Govind Nihalani (2002) Mani Ratnam (2002) Kiran Segal (2002) Navaneetham Padmanabha Seshadri (2002) Saroja Vaidyanathan (2002) T. H. Vinayakram (2002) Jahnu Barua (2003) Danny Denzongpa (2003) Kshetrimayum Ongbi Thouranisabi Devi (2003) Rita Ganguly (2003) Ranjana Gauhar (2003) Sadashiv Vasantrao Gorakshkar (2003) Rakhee Gulzar (2003) Nemi Chandra Jain (2003) O. P. Jain (2003) Aamir Khan (2003) Shafaat Ahmed Khan (2003) T. M. Soundararajan (2003) Sukumari (2003) Satish Vyas (2003) Bharathiraja (2004) Maguni Charan Das (2004) Manoranjan Das (2004) D. K. Datar (2004) Kadri Gopalnath (2004) Hariharan (singer) (2004) Purshottam Das Jalota (2004) Krishn Kanhai (2004) Heisnam Kanhailal (2004) Anupam Kher (2004) Sikkil Sisters – Kunjumani & Neela (2004) Keezhpadam Kumaran Nair (2004) Sudha Ragunathan (2004) Haridwaramangalam A. K. Palanivel (2004) Veernala Jayarama Rao (2004) Bharati Shivaji (2004) Singh Bandhu (2004) Bhajan Sopori (2004) Neyyattinkara Vasudevan (2004) Muzaffar Ali (2005) Shameem Dev Azad (2005) M. Boyer (2005) K. S. Chithra (2005) Yumlembam Gambhini Devi (2005) Shah Rukh Khan (2005) Ghulam Sadiq Khan (2005) Kavita Krishnamurti (2005) Chaturbhuj Meher (2005) Kumkum Mohanty (2005) Punaram Nishad (2005) Kedar Nath Sahoo (2005) Sougaijam Thanil Singh (2005) Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan (2005) Komala Varadan (2005) Wadali Brothers (2005) Ileana Citaristi (2006) Mehmood Dhaulpuri (2006) Shree Lal Joshi (2006) Surinder Kaur (2006) Rashid Khan (musician) (2006) Vasundhara Komkali (2006) Yashodhar Mathpal (2006) Madhup Mudgal (2006) Kavungal Chathunni Panicker (2006) Shyama Charan Pati (2006) Gayatri Sankaran (2006) Prasad Sawkar (2006) Aribam Syam Sharma (2006) Shobana (2006) Kanaka Srinivasan (2006) Pankaj Udhas (2006) Mohan Babu (2007) Geeta Chandran (2007) Astad Deboo (2007) Neelamani Devi (2007) Remo Fernandes (2007) P. Gopinathan (2007) Pushpa Hans (2007) Shanti Hiranand (2007) Ananda Shankar Jayant (2007) Govardan Kumari (2007) Sonam Tshering Lepcha (2007) Balachandra Menon (2007) Shashikala (2007) Gajendra Narayan Singh (2007) Thingbaijam Babu Singh (2007) Pannuru Sripathy (2007) Valayapatti A. R. Subramaniam (2007) Waman Thakre (2007) P. R. Thilagam (2007) Tom Alter (2008) Moozhikkulam Kochukuttan Chakyar (2008) Jonnalagadda Gurappa Chetty (2008) Meenakshi Chitharanjan (2008) Madhuri Dixit (2008) Kekoo Gandhy (2008) Helen Giri Syiem (2008) Jatin Goswami (2008) Hans Raj Hans (2008) Sabitri Heisnam (2008) Gokulotsavji Maharaj (2008) P. K. Narayanan Nambiar (2008) Gennadi Mikhailovich Pechinkov (2008) Gangadhar Pradhan (2008) M. Night Shyamalan (2008) Sirkazhi G. Sivachidambaram (2008) Jawahar Wattal (2008) Ameena Ahmad Ahuja (2009) Aishwarya Rai Bachchan (2009) Hemi Bawa (2009) Brahmanandam (2009) Devayani (dancer) (2009) Suresh Dutta (2009) Kalamandalam Gopi (2009) Niranjan Goswami (2009) Geeta Kapur (2009) Nirmal Singh Khalsa (2009) Hashmat Ullah Khan (2009) Helen (2009) S. Krishnaswamy (2009) Akshay Kumar (2009) Iravatham Mahadevan (2009) Hridaynath Mangeshkar (2009) Penaz Masani (2009) Shaoli Mitra (2009) Udit Narayan (2009) Govind Ram Nirmalkar (2009) Leela Omchery (2009) Pratapaditya Pal (2009) Aruna Sairam (2009) Mattannoor Sankarankutty (2009) Kumar Sanu (2009) Kiran Seth (2009) Gurumayum Gourakishor Sharma (2009) Skendrowell Syiemlieh (2009) Thilakan (2009) K. P. Udayabhanu (2009) Vivek (actor) (2009)
2010s	Gul Bardhan (2010) Carmel Berkson (2010) Wasifuddin Dagar (2010) Haobam Ongbi Ngangbi Devi (2010) Nemai Ghosh (2010) Sumitra Guha (2010) Ulhas Kashalkar (2010) Saif Ali Khan (2010) Mukund Lath (2010) Ram Dayal Munda (2010) Arundathi Nag (2010) Raghunath Panigrahi (2010) Resul Pookutty (2010) Arjun Prajapati (2010) Rajkumar Achouba Singh (2010) Shobha Raju (2010) Mayadhar Raut (2010) Rekha (2010) Ajoy Chakrabarty (2011) Neelam Mansingh Chowdhry (2011) Makar Dhwaja Darogha (2011) Mahasundari Devi (2011) Gajam Govardhana (2011) Sunayana Hazarilal (2011) S. R. Janakiraman (2011) Jayaram (2011) Kajol (2011) Shaji N. Karun (2011) Girish Kasaravalli (2011) Irrfan Khan (2011) Tabu (2011) Kalamandalam Kshemavathy (2011) Peruvanam Kuttan Marar (2011) Jivya Soma Mashe (2011) Dadi Pudumjee (2011) M. K. Saroja (2011) Khangembam Mangi Singh (2011) Prahlad Tipanya (2011) Usha Uthup (2011) Satish Alekar (2012) Satish Alekar (2012) Vanraj Bhatia (2012) Nameirakpam Ibemni Devi (2012) Gopal Prasad Dubey (2012) Gundecha Brothers (2012) Chittani Ramachandra Hegde (2012) Anup Jalota (2012) Moti Lal Kemmu (2012) Shahid Parvez (2012) Mohanlal Chaturbhuj Kumhar (2012) Sakar Khan (2012) Joy Michael (2012) Minati Mishra (2012) Na Muthuswamy (2012) R. Nagarathnamma (2012) Kalamandalam Sivan Namboodiri (2012) Priyadarshan (2012) Priyadarshan (2012) Vijay Sharma (2012) Laila Tyabji (2012) Yamunabai Waikar (2012) S. Shakir Ali (2013) Gajam Anjaiah (2013) Bapu (2013) Pablo Bartholomew (2013) Purna Das Baul Samrat (2013) G. C. D. Bharti (2013) Apurba Kishore Bir (2013) Ghanakanta Bora (2013) B. Jayashree (2013) Hildamit Lepcha (2013) Madhu (actor) (2013) Sudha Malhotra (2013) Kailash Chandra Meher (2013) Brahmdeo Ram Pandit (2013) Nana Patekar (2013) Rekandar Nageswara Rao (2013) Ghulam Mohammad Saznawaz (2013) Jaymala Shiledar (2013) Ramesh Sippy (2013) Sridevi (2013) Suresh Talwalkar (2013) Mahrukh Tarapor (2013) Balwant Thakur (2013) Rajendra Tikku (2013) Mohammad Ali Baig (2014) Vidya Balan (2014) Musafir Ram Bhardwaj (2014) Sabitri Chatterjee (2014) Biman Bihari Das (2014) Sunil Das (2014) Elam Endira Devi (2014) Supriya Devi (2014) Vijay Ghate (2014) Nayana Apte Joshi (2014) Elam Endira Devi (2014) Supriya Devi (2014) Vijay Ghate (2014) Nayana Apte Joshi (2014) Rani Karnaa (2014) Bansi Kaul (2014) Moinuddin Khan (musician) (2014) Geeta Mahalik (2014) Paresh Maity (2014) Ram Mohan (2014) Sudarsan Pattnaik (2014) Paresh Rawal (2014) Kalamandalam Satyabhama (2014) Anuj Sharma (actor) (2014) Santosh Sivan (2014) Sooni Taraporevala (2014) Naresh Bedi (2015) Sanjay Leela Bhansali (2015) Rahul Jain (2015) Ravindra Jain (2015) Prasoon Joshi (2015) A. Kanyakumari (2015) Prafulla Kar (2015) Tripti Mukherjee (2015) Neil Nongkynrih (2015) Kota Srinivasa Rao (2015) Shekhar Sen (2015) Pran Kumar Sharma (2015) Mahesh Raj Soni (2015) Malini Awasthi (2016) Madhur Bhandarkar (2016) Tulsidas Borkar (2016) Mamta Chandrakar (2016) Ajay Devgn (2016) Bhikhudan Gadhvi (2016) Laxma Goud (2016) Saeed Jaffrey (2016) Venkatesh Kumar (2016) Naresh Chander Lal (2016) Bhalchandra Dattatray Mondhe (2016) Nila Madhab Panda (2016) Michael Postel (2016) Pratibha Prahlad (2016) Gulabo Sapera (2016) Prakash Chand Surana (2016) Basanti Bisht (2017) Baua Devi (2017) Jitendra Haripal (2017) Kailash Kher (2017) Sadhu Meher (2017) Aruna Mohanty (2017) T. K. Murthy (2017) Mukund Nayak (2017) Anuradha Paudwal (2017) Parassala B. Ponnammal (2017) Bharathi Vishnuvardhan (2017) Doddarange Gowda (2018) Manoj Joshi (actor) (2018) Pran Kishore Kaul (2018) Vijay Kichlu (2018) Pravakara Maharana (2018) Sisir Mishra (2018) Vijayalakshmi Navaneethakrishnan (2018) Gobardhan Panika (2018) R. Sathyanarayana (2018) Bhajju Shyam (2018) Ibrahim Sutar (2018) Rudrapatnam Brothers (2018) Manoj Bajpayee (2019) Pritam Bhartwan (2019) Jyoti Bhatt (2019) Swapan Chaudhuri (2019) Dinyar Contractor (2019) Thanga Darlong (2019) Prabhu Deva (2019) Godawari Dutta (2019) Joravarsinh Jadav (2019) Fayaz Ahmad Jan (2019) K. G. Jayan (2019) Waman Kendre (2019) Kader Khan (2019) Abdul Gafur Khatri (2019) Shankar Mahadevan (2019) Narthaki Nataraj (2019) Milena Salvini (2019) Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry (2019) Rajeev Taranath (2019) Hiralal Yadav (2019)
2020s	Shashadhar Acharya (2020) Rajeshwar Acharya (2019) Indira P. P. Bora (2020) Bombay Sisters (2020) Vajira Chitrasena (2020) Puru Dadheech (2020) Madhu Mansuri Hasmukh (2020) Sarita Joshi (2020) Kangana Ranaut (2020) Ramzan Khan (2020) Manilal Nag (2020) Dalavai Chalapathi Rao (2020) Adnan Sami (2020) Suresh Wadkar (2020) Bombay Jayashri (2021) KC Sivasankaran (2021) Rewben Mashangva (2021) Sanjida Khatun (2021) Annavarapu Rama Swamy (2021) Nidumolu Sumathi (2021)