Pookutty to turn director to tell father-son story

MUMBAI - Oscar winning sound designer Resul Pookutty is all set to turn director with a film starring Amitabh Bachchan.

Pookutty’s film will be an emotional father-son story that he has been scripting for some time.

“It’s something that I’ve been toying with for a long time. But to turn director I need to set aside my work in sound and devote myself entirely to that one thing. At the moment I’m working on the sound for my second international project,” said Pookutty, 37.

“It’s really too early to talk about it. But yes it is a very emotional father-son subject. I’m a great fan of the work of Ritwik Ghatak and by extension a fan of Ghatak’s disciple Sanjay Leela Bhansali. My film would be from that school. I love the melodrama that underlines the life of characters on screen,” he said.

Pookutty says he immediately thought of Amitabh for the movie.

“You can’t blame me for thinking of the best, can you?” says the sound designer currently enjoying the success of his sound design in “Robot”.

His second international project is titled “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” and will be shot in Rajasthan and other parts of India gives Pookutty a chance to work with the young “Slumdog…” star Dev Patel once again. But it is the film’s director John Madden that he is most excited to be working with.

“I’ve been in love with Madden’s film ‘Shakespeare In Love’. And now I’m getting to work with him and some of the most accomplished British actors like Dame Judi Dench, Julie Christie, Tom Wilkinson and Peter O’Toole,” said Pookutty.

He is the only Indian in the crew. “Fox Searchlight, who had produced ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ specially asked for me. It feels like a great honour. For the first time since ‘Slumdog’ I’ll be doing live sound mixing.”

With projects like these coming his way Pookutty finds it hard to wrench himself into a different direction.