Not-for-profit television channel to focus on art, culture, heritage

PLAN UNVEILED: ( From right) S. Krishnaswamy, founder,Krishnaswamy Associates; N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief, The Hindu; Subramanian Swamy, Janata Party president and Swami Atmaghanananda ,secretary of Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda College, at the 48th anniversary celebrations of Krishnaswamy Associates in Chennai on Monday. Photo: S.S.Kumar

Chennai-based media company Krishnaswamy Associates will shortly launch Krishna TV, a not-for-profit television channel that will broadcast programmes on Indian art, culture and heritage.

Presiding over the 48{+t}{+h} anniversary of the company that produces documentary films and television programmes, its founder S. Krishnaswamy said the high-end infrastructure for the project was in place and the channel could go on stream in the next couple of months.

A key figure who will be supporting the venture is Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy, who was also the chief guest at the anniversary celebrations. Dr. Swamy has volunteered to support the project by raising resources, Mr. Krishnaswamy said.

In his address, Dr. Swamy said initiatives like Krishna TV were important to propagate the essential values of India's civilisation. The core of Indian culture was the harmonisation of material growth with spiritual advancement.

Blaming excessive materialism for breeding corruption, Dr. Swamy said a long-term programme to weed out corruption had to involve a return to the concept of sanatana dharma in society.

N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief of

The Hindu , said the company had produced a remarkable corpus of work that explored the idea of India and the core values of its civilisation and presented them in a non-judgmental, non-didactic way.

Complimenting Mr. Krishnaswamy for an “obduracy in refusing to compromise on basic principles” — on one occasion when the Censor Board wanted cuts in a film on the Golden Temple in Amritsar post-Operation Blue Star; and on another occasion when he declined a proposal to change the title of a documentary ‘From Indus Valley to Indira Gandhi' — Mr. Ram said he wished more creative individuals, intellectuals and journalists would learn from this example.

Swami Atmaghanananda, secretary, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda College, gave the benediction address.

Forthcoming projects

Mohana Krishnaswamy said some of the forthcoming projects included a set of training films on the panchayati raj administration, a TV series on Swami Vivekananda and a film on freedom fighter and filmmaker K. Subrahmanyam.