Resul Pookutty (born 30 May 1971)[1] is an Indian film sound designer, sound editor and audio mixer.[2][3] He won the Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing, along with Richard Pryke and Ian Tapp, for Slumdog Millionaire.[4] Pookutty has worked in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu,[5][6] Marathi [7] and Malayalam languages in addition to British films. And now he is a member of the Executive committee of Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (Oscar Committee), Motion Picture Sound Editors Guild (MPSE) and CAS (Cinema Audio Society) of America. Recently Mr. Pookutty was awarded the title Distinguished Engineer by Rocheston, New York. (Distinguished Engineer is an honor awarded to Engineers of repute, selected from across the world in recognition of caliber, technical excellence and accomplishments that are an inspiration to people.[8] In 2010, the Government of India honored him with the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award in the Republic of India, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to cinema.[8][9] In the same year, he was conferred an honorary doctorate by Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit.
Born into a family in Vilakkupara, near Anchal about 40km from Kollam, Kerala, India. He was the youngest of eight children. His father was a private bus ticket checker. Pookutty had to walk 6km to the nearest school and study in the light of a kerosene lamp as his village had no electricity.[10][11]
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."[3] 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), Dus Kahaniyaan, Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja (2009) and Enthiran (2010).[2]
Personal life
Pookutty is married to Shadia.[14] They have two children.[15]
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