Kottayam: After spending years as an assistant director, Sruti Harihara Subramanian was set to make a commercial film when she first heard of Padmabhushan recipient and painter Krishen Khanna.
Attracted by his life dedicated to the pursuit of art, she wielded the megaphone for a documentary on him, A Far Afternoon: A Painted Saga.
The "Saga" won her the national award for the Best Art/Culture Film, vindicating her decision to go for a documentary. The award also made Kerala, especially Pala where Sruti has her roots, proud.
Born in Nigeria and settled in Chennai, Sruti has left her mark as a filmmaker, theatre activist, actor, model and an environment-friendly entrepreneur.
The Malayalam movies Sruti had watched during vacations at her ancestral home on the banks of the River Meenachil, spurred her to the world of cinema. She said that her grandfather had a jewellery shop, Swamy’s, at Pala in Kottayam. Her father, V. Harihara Subramanian, was a Dean at the Asian School of Economics in Thiruvananthapuram.
Sruti, who was Miss Chennai in 2002, said Piramal Art Foundation, where her husband Ashvin Rajagopalan is the director, assigned her to create the award-winning documentary.