Resul Pookutty reveals he hasn’t seen his Oscar trophy in years, wants to forget about it: ‘Maybe later I might turn it into a doorknob’

In an interview with Film Companion, Resul Pookutty opened up about how he used to look at the Oscar trophy every month, but now that’s not the case anymore. “Now it is years. After Covid, I don’t think I have seen the statue. It has been 3-4 years now!”

Pookutty said he just wants to “forget” about the Oscar trophy and doesn’t fancy gloating about it. “I just want to forget it. I just don’t want to see it. If my children want to see it, I show them. My banker one day said, ‘Sir can I take a picture with it. I said, ‘Yes sure.'”

The sound designer recalled how even Shah Rukh Khan had once asked him about his Oscar trophy as he wanted to see it. “One day Shah Rukh said, ‘Sir can we see your Oscar?’ So, I took it out of the locker! We were working on Ra.One. So he came, he looked at it and he took pictures. If there is some public demand like that, I will go and take it,” Pookutty said.

When asked why he doesn’t keep the trophy at his house, he said, “It’s too much of a trouble. Because you are not there at home, you keep travelling. It’s a security threat. Why do you want to get up in the morning and see it? You get up in the morning, you have an Oscar in front of you. There are lots of awards kept in my studio and all that. Except these two, my Oscar and BAFTA are not there. It’s in the locker. Maybe sometime later, I might make my Oscar into a doorknob!”

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In the interview, Resul Pookutty also opened up about the “Oscar curse” and said how he was “rejected” by a filmmaker–mounting a massive Indian film– because he was intimidated by his knowledge.

The sound designer recalled how the director met him, narrated his script, exchanged ideas and ended the conversation telling him that the project would begin in July of that year. Except, he ghosted him.

“The film started filming and I have no knowledge. They never came back to me! So I wrote to them. First I tried to contact the director, he didn’t respond. I sent him a message. He didn’t respond. Then I sent a message to the producer. He didn’t respond. Then I asked him, ‘Look, I understand you don’t want me. But at least be professional and tell me what is that I have lacked at this stage of my career when somebody doesn’t want me? I want to know why you don’t want me. So that I can correct myself.’

“It was not money because we never discussed money. Because we never discussed budget. I wondered why I’ve been rejected. Only the producer sent me a message that the director had his own personal choice.”

Resul Pookutty said couple of months after the film released and became a huge hit, the director finally wrote to him. According to Resul, the filmmaker said that he was “trying to answer your question” for the last two years.

“‘I really don’t know why I didn’t choose you. Maybe I am from a village. Maybe my village boy syndrome. When I met you, when I spoke with you, you were so clear about your ideas. You had so much knowledge about what you do. It scared me. You knew so much about cinema and what you do,'” Resul recalled the director telling him.

“I said, ‘Thank you so much for your reply. I have moved on. That’s it. I quite like the frankness, though it was two years late.’ I had gone through my own heartbreak. But at the peak of your career, when the whole world is celebrating you, when somebody is rejecting you, it becomes a huge blow to your own self. I had gone through that. I bled,” he added.