National Film Awards Controversy: Resul Pookutty Pens Emotional Letter For Those Who Weren’t The Chosen 11
In the wake of only 11 awardees being honoured by President Ram Nath Kovind at the 65th National Film Awards, noted sound designer, Resul Pokutty shared a post on Facebook expressing his dissent on the matter...
Yesterday,
it was reported that a number of awardees might skip the 65th National
Film Awards ceremony owing to differential treatment in presenting the
awards.
When the awardees gathered for rehearsals on Wednesday,
they learnt that President Ram Nath Kovind will present only 11 awards of the
125, which left them fuming.
Smriti Irani
This morning, it came to light that over 65 awardees
gave the prestigious ceremony a miss. Noted sound designer and
Oscar-winner Resul Pookutty penned an emotional letter to express dissent over
the matter. Here’s what it says:
This is the sentiments of an ordinary technician working
in the Indian Film Industry.The Hon.President mentioned in His speech at the
National Award Ceremony that “it is indeed a special moment for each of the 125
Award winners”! I do not know if it was special for all of them but I’m sure it
was special for some of them!
Resul Pookutty
Hon.President also mentioned that there are 200,000/ people
directly and many more indirectly working in the film industry. Yes that is
true... most of the people who abstained from the ceremony yesterday consists
of the majority of that 200,000. They are the work force... they work behind
the camera, they carry heavy lights, they carry heavy equipments, they swing
booms, they push trolleys, they work more than 18houres a day!. It is their
sweat that earns every state Govt it’s Entertainment Tax- UP charges the
highest 60% in addition to the GST @18%, though we are strictly not a service
Industry. So in effect we became the highest taxed Industry!
When your good office had given time to hand over the National Award to only 11
members out of the 125, it is those smallest people in the whole spectrum got
sidelined! Their aspirations and ambition got crushed! Hon.President mentioned
in the speech India based Films been successful so foreign studios are coming
in, we must encourage every opportunity to celebrate our values. But the real
people who took India’s name in the International map of world cinema are those
technical force. Starting with V.Santharam who got recognized for Best Sound at
Cannes in the early 50’s, or Bhanu Athaiya who brought the first competitive
Oscar to India or Santhosh Sivan who got recognized by the American Society Of
Cinematographers or Resul Pookutty who got Asia’s first technical Oscar for
Sound and many more such exemplary examples exist in our filmic conscience.
Ram Nath Kovind
When your good office chose the last 11 from the list of 125, it is these extra
ordinary small people who got left out in their national recognition. We
learned from the news that the President’s office was too busy and couldn’t
have allowed more than one hour. We could have been called back on another day!
We would have come back with our own expenditure, in trains or buses,would have
stayed in the cheapest lodges to avoid extra burden of repeat call for
@MIB,after all we are used to traveling in trains and buses when our stars
travel by first class flights, to save production’s money. We wouldn’t have
felt bad. We felt bad because when Your good office chose from the bottom of
the list it was only the stars and star elements got picked up! Or those 11
people could have been the young and first time awardees! We would have clapped
in joy at Your choice... We felt bad because the people who got left out were
those raw people, the technicians who are always called first in every award
ceremony and edited out in every TV shows. Stars don’t care us, business don’t
care us, we thought our nation would care us!The National Award is our nation’s
highest recognition, being recognized at Hon. President’s hand is our
privilege, our honour and our dream!.But I felt the Nation’s sentiment got left
out in the choices that were made yesterday, for its the technicians who always
gets the raw deal!.
I plead your forgiveness,for if I have mentioned anything
out of line,after all I’m one of those sentimental ordinary Indian Film
Technician!.
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