FTII sound design course at high demand after the Oscar of Resul Pookutty
Info Guide — By The Desk on June 26, 2009 at 11:26 AMIndian Express: Till this year, it drew only a maximum of 30 applications for its 12 seats but when the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) started sorting through the applications for its new academic year, the Sound Recording and Sound Designing (SRSD) course saw the wannabe sound recorders/designers hit an all-time high of 90. Clearly, there can be only one reason — its alumnus Resul Pookutty walking away with the Oscar for this category in February.
“We have registered a three-fold increase in applications for the sound stream. From 30, it has jumped to 90; that has never happened before. It always fluctuated between 20 and 40, but this year it has broken all records. I attribute this increase in numbers to Pookutty,” Pankaj Rag, director, FTII, told The Indian Express.
When contacted, Pookutty expressed delight with the development. “I’m glad that more students are registering themselves for the sound design course. It has been starved of its fair share of exposure. After my Oscar win, every other insignificant film institute eschewed on the news by opening a new sound design stream but you can only learn film craft and sound design the right way at FTII.”
“I would like to tell this to students who want to pursue a film career. Danny Boyle told me that 70-80 per cent of his films consist of sound. So I want to tell the students that sound is an indispensable part of films,” Pookutty said. Equally thrilled with the news — of the unprecedented number of applicants to join the course — are the present set of sound design students at FTII.
“It is good to hear people are taking interest as well as necessary steps to pursue sound design. Pookutty’s win has done wonders for not just sound design in industry, but also at FTII,” said Chadrashekhar Sagde, a final-year student of SRSD. Lipika, a batch mate, didn’t hide her glee. “Our films disregard sound design, it is only because of Pookutty that people know there is something called sound design,” she said.
Despite all this, SRSD still remains one of the less sought-after courses at FTII. There were around 3,000 applicants for eight streams this year — direction, acting, editing, cinematography, art direction and production design, animation and computer graphics, screenplay writing and SRSD. And sound fetched up way below other streams in terms of student interest, despite the Pookutty euphoria.
“With my win, I had hoped that the industry and people will understand the importance of sound in films. There is a significant increase in the number of applicants at the institute this year but it should increase further and be at par with other streams,” said Pookutty.
