Sounding Off: The Memoirs Of An Oscar-Winning Sound Designer by Resul Pookutty |Baiju Natarajan

Book Summary: 

Sounding Off chronicles Resul Pookutty’s extraordinary journey from a small village in Kerala to winning the Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing for Slumdog Millionaire. Preferring to call it a “travelogue” rather than a traditional autobiography, the book is structured into three parts: his early years in Vilakkutara (Kollam district), his training at FTII Pune, and his rise in the Hindi—and later global—cinema sound world.

Co‑authored by Baiju Natarajan, the narrative is based on extensive recorded sessions, later transcribed from about 3,000 pages into a 400‑page manuscript, weaving together technical detail, personal anecdotes, humour and introspection . Pookutty describes his work on films like Black, Ghajini, Traffic Signal and Enthiran, before achieving global recognition with Slumdog Millionaire. The narrative reveals not just his technical mastery but also his emotional world—his close bonds with his parents, the grief of their loss, health struggles, and his search for personal fulfillment and love, eventually marrying Shadia Written in a conversational first‑person style, the memoir immerses the reader in the sensory world of sound—at times mystical, at times reverberating with the cultural cadence of Kerala and Mumbai. It reflects Pookutty’s belief that sound is a “subconscious art” and that a sound designer crafts what the audience selectively hears to shape cinematic experience 

About the Authors

Resul Pookutty (born May 30, 1971, in Vilakkupara near Kollam, Kerala) is a renowned Indian sound designer, sound editor and mixer. He became the first Asian to win the Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing for Slumdog Millionaire, which he shared with Richard Pryke and Ian Tapp . A graduate of FTII Pune, his early credits include Private Detective: Two Plus Two Plus One (1997), Black, Ghajini, Traffic Signal, Enthiran, Pazhassi Raja, among many others . In 2009–10, he was honored with the Padma Shri and an honorary D.Litt. by Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit for his outstanding contribution to Indian cinema. Pookutty continues to work across Indian and international film industries and has—in addition to his pioneering sound career—made his directorial debut in Malayalam with Otta

Baiju Natarajan (also known as N. Baiju) is a Malayalam language scholar, poet and researcher. He studied literature at the Oriental Research Institute, University of Madras, published a poetry collection titled Akam: 49 Kavitakal in 2001, and edited Cities of Kerala, Actually Small Towns in 2008. A seasoned consultant in generating autobiographical narratives, he lives in Bangalore and Kochi and worked closely with Pookutty in structuring and co‑authoring the memoir Sounding Off