Resul Pookutty - The Sound of Sounds

Resounding Sound

Resul Pookutty  who raised the credit of INDIA with Oscar Awards...

Resull Pookutty (born 1971) is an Indian film sound designer, sound editor and mixer. He, along with Richard Pryke and Ian Tapp won the Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing for the film Slumdog Millionaire. He has worked in Hollywood, Hindi and Malayalam films.

Pookutty made his debut in sound design with the 1997 film Private Detective: Two Plus Two Plus One. He designed sound for the 2008 blockbuster Ghajini, starring Aamir Khan and directed by Murugadoss. His first major international project Slumdog Millionaire won him an Academy award. His work on the film also won him nation-wide acclaim.

Besides an Oscar, Pookutty has also won a BAFTA and a Cinema Audio Society (CAS) award for best sound mixing for the film.

Early life and background
But life wasn't always this bright for Pookutty.  Resul Pookutty was born in a Muslim family in Vilakkupara, Anchal 58 km from Kollam, Kerala. He was the youngest of eight children born to an impoverished family. His father was a private bus conductor, and he had to walk 6 km to the nearest school and studied in the light of the kerosene lamp as their village had no electricity. He then went to the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune from where he graduated in 1995.  He did his law graduation in Govt.Law college Trivandrum. But not completed. And he said that it was Resul's father's desire to make him an advocate.

Career

Pookutty moved to Mumbai after his graduation. He termed it as "a natural immigration as a graduate of the institute." He pointed out that "Ninety-five per cent of the technicians of the Mumbai film industry are alumni of FTII, Pune."[7] Pookutty made his debut in sound design with the 1997 film Private Detective: Two Plus Two Plus One, directed by Rajat Kapoor. He got his big break with the critically acclaimed 2005 film Black, directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. He subsequently engineered sound for major productions like Musafir (2004), Zinda (2006), Traffic Signal (2007), Gandhi, My Father (2007), Saawariya (2007) and Dus Kahaniyaan (2007).

Personal life

Pookutty is married to Shadia. They have a son Rayan and a daughter, Salna.

Awards

2009: Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing along with Ian Tapp and Richard Pryke for his work in Slumdog Millionaire.[18]
2009: BAFTA Award for Best Sound along with Glenn Freemantle, Richard Pryke, Tom Sayers and Ian Tapp for his work in Slumdog Millionaire.[19]
2005: Zee Cine Award for Best Audiography for his work in Musafir

His Academy award acceptance speech:
"This is unbelievable. We can't believe this. Ladies and gentlemen... sorry... I share the stage with two magicians, you know, who created the very ordinary sounds of Bombay, the cacophony of Bombay, into a soul-stirring, artful resonance called Slumdog Millionaire. I come from a country and a civilization that given the universal word. That word is preceded by silence, followed by more silence. That word is 'Om.' So I dedicate this award to my country. Thank you, Academy, this is not just a sound award, this is history being handed over to me. My sincere and deepest gratitude to my teachers, Danny Boyle, Christian Colson, Paul Ritchie, Pravesh... and everybody who has contributed to this film, Glenn Freemantle and all the sound mixers. I dedicate this to you guys. Thank you, Academy. Thank you very much."