Fellow-alumni and an Oscar winner Resul Pookutty feel a deep sense of empathy Cannes achiever Payal Kapadia. “I feel there are quite a few similarities between my life at FTII and that of Payal Kapadia, this could just be a coincidence. I was rusticated few times from the hostel at FTII, once for an issue when I was not even on the campus. I was Shooting with Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai on a student documentary project in Mumbai, when the news of my being rusticated came in the newspaper. The FTII can be that arbitrary.In my final year my scholarship was cut by my HOD for not attending uninspiring classes but instead going for assisting seniors. I cried on that day, because 500 rupees was so much for me, I was self funding my studies at FTII.”
Much later when Resul won the Oscar,the FTII authorities were proud of him, just as they are of Payal Kapadia. “After I won the Oscar, when my professor sat with me under the Wisdom Tree and told the press he was proud of me, I felt happy. Payal must also feeling the same right now.”
However Resul also believes here is a huge difference in his wins and achievements and Payal’s. “Me, A R Rahman, Santosh Sivan all of us proved ourselves because our film Industry gave us a chance, especially me, to experiment with our craft. They listened to me and they understood the value of what we were doing, in my case especially Sanjay Leela Bhansali. If he hadn’t allowed me to flourish in doing Sound Design of Black ,the way I went about it…He spent a lot of money on me back in 2003 by the standards of Hindi Film Industry. So I owe my success to my Indian Film fraternity.In Payal’s case Indian Film Industry has nothing to do with it.They may not even support an idea like that to produce or even consider investing in her ideas.”
Speaking on Anasuya Sengupta’s win at Cannes Resul says , “Anasuya’s win is colossal, absolutely brilliant… She worked in the unit of the film Chittagong, an independent film we made years ago, where we introduced Rajkummar Rao, Vijay Varma, Jaideep Ahlawat and Nawazuddin Siddiqui. LA based Bedabrata Pain directed it. So it was a huge and pleasant surprise for me when she won the Best Actress at Cannes.I never knew when she became an actor. All the mainstream Indian actors who walk on the red carpet at Cannes may not even consider a role like the one Anasuya did in The Shameless if it is offered to them… Brad Pitt does an independent film like Babel but not our mainstream stars, because we don’t value international awards .So Anasuya’s win is sweet and courageous, I would say.”
