Thiruvananthapuram: “The biggest challenge of sync sound recording is the attitude of people," said Oscar winning sound designer Resul Pookutty during the technical workshop on ‘Challenges of Sync Sound Recording’ held as part of 22nd IFFK on Saturday. In his talk peppered with anecdotes, he took a jibe at former FTII chairman Gajendra Chauhan. He said that Indian cinema was a field in which one did not need any education. “When you give your application to a film school, you are signing up for being a struggler. And who heads the film school? What was the qualification of the last appointed (FTII) chairman,” he said.
The first set of people, whom he criticised, were exhibitors. He said that the works of painters and writers are seen and read the way the artist intended it to be. However when it comes to cinema, there are not too many theatres which follow the standards set for sound, according to him. "I have had to bribe projectionists in Mumbai to keep the sound at Film Level 7," he said.
He came down harshly on Malayalam actors, who opt for dubbing their voices later than choose sync sound, in which sound is recorded at the time of filming itself. "In Kerala, you find that actors are not ready to learn their lines. It is shameful," he said. The situation was the same in all Indian cinema, until Bollywood actors became comfortable with sync sound, said Padmavati sound designer Bishwad-eep Chatterjee. "They don't have to come back and dub," he said. Someone in the audience said that as scripts are often written on the set, actors won't be able to learn it. Resul said that he didn't subscribe to filmmaking where you write on the set. The venue at Hotel Hycinth was houseful, surprising even the IFFK festival organisers.
