SNS Sastry was an Indian cinematographer and documentary filmmaker who was active from the 1950s to 1978. He is a winner of four national awards for Malwa (1963),One Day (1964),I Am 20 (1967), and And I Make Short Films (1968).
Sastry earned a diploma in cinematography from the Bengaluru Polytechnic, now the Government Film and Television Institute (GFTI), Bengaluru.
He joined Films Division India, the state-run film production and distribution unit, as a newsreel cameraman in the early 1950s. Over time, he became a director. For nearly three decades until 1978, Sastry made several documentaries for Films Division. The most notable among these are One Day (1964), I Am Twenty (1967), And I Make Short Films (1968), This Bit of That India (1972), The Burning Sun (1973), Our Indira (1973), and Flashback (1974).
Despite being state-sponsored, SastryâÂÂs films are marked by a subtle criticism of the political, economic and social developments of the time. His works often feature gentle self-criticism, questioning mindsets, and resilient attitudes.
As director â documentaries
As cinematographer - documentaries