“Jai Ho” wasn’t originally a part of Slumdog Millionaire, scene was shot with a Shah Rukh Khan song: Resul Pookutty

Discussing the evolving nature of the film industry at the Galatta Plus Mega Malayalam Roundtable 2023, Resul remarked, “We need to understand that the business has evolved. When we write, we often overlook the business aspect of the film. This is where Hollywood excels. Initially, Slumdog Millionaire was a very small film, not centred around a love story. However, the studio decided to project it as such. They focused on the small element of the boy searching for the girl, a theme absent in the original book (Q & A), and not a significant part of the movie.”

Opening up about the evolution of “Jai Ho”, Resul recalled, “The version of the film that I saw was the eighth draft of the edit. ‘Jai Ho’ was never there in it. Choreographer Longiness Fernandes shot the song using [Shankar Ehsaan Loy’s] ‘Aaj Ki Raat’ from the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Don. Although Rahman joined the project very late, Rahman was so brilliant that after he heard this and how the sequence had been choreographed, shot and edited, he still said he would do something. He then composed ‘Jai Ho’ with the same rhythm structure, and we went back and tweaked the edit.”

Commenting on the collaborative spirit among actors in Malayalam cinema, Resul explained how in the West, A-list actors often choose projects based on their awards potential.

Using the example of Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Oscar-nominated psychological drama Babel (2006), Resul stated, “For a star like Brad Pitt to consider a film like Babel, the script needs to come with a note proclaiming it as ‘Oscar-worthy’. Only then will they look at it. In such cases, money, agents and other aspects become insignificant. They do it because, at their core, they are actors who have risen to stardom.”

Highlighting the current trend of labelling everything as “content,” Resul emphasised that a film should not be reduced to this word. “Film is not content. It involves blood and sweat, serious writing, and is a work of art. You cannot diminish its essence by simply calling it content,” he observed.

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