‘I will be up against the best in the world’
Roshmilla Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; January 24, 2015)

It is a twin treat for 43-year-old Resul Pookutty who along with Amrit Pritam is up for an award at the 62nd Golden Reel Award by Motion Pictures Sound Editors of America, for their sound design in Kamal Sadanah's Hindi film Roar - Tigers Of The Sundarbans. And he has also landed an all-expense-paid invite to the Oscars on February 22.

"I've been mixing Hawaizaada whose prints are to be dispatched abroad tonight. The last two nights I haven't slept and missed the emails from the sound editor's guild. When I did see them, I thought it was a joke. Then I got a email wondering why I wasn't responding to the nomination," an elated Resul told Mirror. "I haven't even had time to inform my family, only my elder brother knows. I got hugs from the team of Hawaizaada which is also about an asiprational Indian who wants to fly the world's first plane."

What makes the Golden Reel a big deal for the Oscar winning sound designer is that it is judged by the best of his fraternity and since he is nominated in the Foreign Film category, he is up against the best in the world.

"There's nothing beyond this award in my craft but the biggest high is that I'm nominated for my work in an Indian film which just proves that if given the opportunities, funds and creative freedom, our talent is at par with the best in the world," he asserts, pointing out that only in India can one double up as a sound mixer and a sound designer.

Roar was a typical adventure story of the hunter who becomes the hunted. But around the time of the film's release, the news of a man who fell into a tiger's enclosure in Delhi zoo and was eaten, made it a horrifying creature. 'That's not true, tigers only attacks when it's space is encroached. I wanted to underline that and create an emotional impact with the last scene of the mother with her two cubs," he explains.

To underline the hostile environment of the Sunderbans, Resul visited five forests in Assam and on the advice of Wilfrend Van Baelan who invented Auro 3D sound technology in 2005, then mixed then in Dolby atmos. Though Roar wasn't a commercial success, his work has been recognised and appreciated.

The Golden Reel Awards are on February 18. Four days later, he'll be at the Oscars. Being a member of the Academy he gets first priority on tickets but this time he's won the lottery that means it will be a paid vacation. He says, "I asked my wife to come along but the kids have exams so I will go alone on this much-needed vacation, pack in a few meetings, catch up with peers and put the finishing touches on my film script."