With the music of the much awaited Kochadaiiyaan being launched along with the trailer, sound designer, Resul Pookutty couldn’t be happier. In a chat with CE, the Oscar winner reveals why the film has got him so excited.
“At the inception of this film, Rajini called me and said, ‘I have one film for you. You have to create it. We will be doing only the action. It’s your sound that will bring it alive.’ I was very intrigued and interested in this project, it being India’s first 3D motion capture technology film,” recalls Resul.
With the sound effects playing a major role, the film involved a lot of intensive research. “It’s a 3D movie in the Auro 3 D 11.1 sound system. Being a period film and an action adventure, with incidents we don’t see in real life, I had to re-create the sounds to make the movie real. This was my biggest challenge,” explains Resul. He had to create sounds of swishing costumes, wild animals, special hyena fight, moving armies involving layers of sound in the foreground and backgroud, ancient metal ornaments, dolphins, peacock dancing, battleships and a 12-minute climax war scene with a humungous army.
“I worked closely with the costume department and art department to understand the details of what real ornaments and fabrics would sound like,” says Resul.
About re-creating the late Nagesh’s voice on screen, he says, “We could get old photos for the visuals. But recreating his voice was the biggest obstacle to overcome!”
One of the highlights was working with Rajinikanth. “He is so enthusiastic and exuberant. One day, he dubbed the entire first half. I wanted him to take a break and return the next day so that his voice would have a tired feel to it, which would be suitable to the older character. But he was so enthusiastic to continue that I had to persuade him to go home!” he says.
Resul is thrilled to be teaming up with A R Rahman again. “He’s my bro, guide and companion and we’ve done four films together. I’m in love with his music. Capturing his 100-piece orchestra was a huge task. But my efforts were rewarded when I got his sms — ‘superb sound design, mashaallah’ !” he says.
Resul is working in top gear to complete the sound mixing before the April release of the film.