Resul Pookutty wants to make Hindi film with Rajinikanth; reveals he ‘almost died’ during Otta shoot

Though Pookutty has made his debut as a director now, he still wants to make a Hindi film with Rajinikanth. The filmmaker shared, “I will narrate it to Rajinikanth sir. I have been trying, but everybody is busy, so I haven’t found the time to do it. But I do want to narrate it to him because I think it’s up his alley.”

Since Resul Pookutty is an Academy Award-winning sound designer, he knows people will have high expectations from him as a director as well. But Pookutty believes he is “just an ordinary filmmaker”. He said, “People might expect, because you’re an Oscar winner, you’re a globally celebrated technician, something like next (Christopher) Nolan has come or the next James (Cameron) has come or something to that effect or maybe he’ll be better than everybody else. He’ll be something new, something beyond. People might expect something like that. I am nothing like that. I’m just an ordinary filmmaker. I have made a film. This is my vision of the film. This is the film that I want to talk about.”

Otta is set in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. It is based on S Hariharan’s book titled Runaway Children and takes inspiration from Hariharan’s life.

While making the film, Pookutty suffered from dengue and was admitted to the hospital for 45 days, stalling the shoot. He “collapsed” on the set on the fourth day of the shoot. The sound designer-director shared, “I was diagnosed with dengue fever. And I thought it was like viral fever. I almost died and came back. For days, for weeks, I had nightmares. I just couldn’t come to terms with it. My platelet count was so bad and they did 12 bottles of plasma transfusion on me and still I was not recovering.”

He continued, “The doctor said I was the longest third case nationally. Thrombocytopenia is a situation where your platelet goes really bad. You go through internal bleeding. And everything that can go wrong with me went wrong. I was also going through some personal challenges at home. It took me 45 days to recover.”

However, the cast and crew of Otta stood by Resul Pookutty’s side in the tough times and adjusted the dates of other films to make Otta happen. “My cast and crew, they were so lovely. They went out of their way. Like Satyaraj sir told me not to worry and said, ‘You tell me, I’ll come.’ Rohini had to push so many movies. She had to beg and plead,” Pookutty shared.

Otta is scheduled to hit theatres on October 27.