Resul Pookutty also came down heavily on the fact that it was the “smallest people” who were sidelined in this decision.
Resul Pookutty, Indian sound designer who won the Oscar for Best Sound Mixing for Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire, has written a withering Facebook post in support of awardees who were not given National Film Awards directly by the President. This year, only 11 out of 137 awards were given by the President. The rest of the winners received their honours from ministers Smriti Irani and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore.
Pookutty wrote in a long post, “…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!”
He also came down heavily on the fact that it was the “smallest people” who were sidelined in this decision. “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.”
He added, “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!.”