Dropping of two National Film Awards in sound category kicks up a controversy

Controversy erupts as National Film Awards exclude sound categories, sparking backlash from audiographers and sound designers.

The exclusion of sound mixing and sync sound categories from the National Film Awards from this year has kicked up a controversy with audiographers’ unions and sound designers accusing the Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry of taking a unilateral decision without consultation.

Until 2008, only an award for Best Audiography existed in the sound category. In 2009, the award was sub-categorised into three, for location sound recordist, sound designer, and re-recordist of the final mixed track. However, when the notification was issued this year calling for entries for National Awards 2022, the three categories were replaced with a single one for Best Sound Designer.

“The decision is illogical and displays a low level of understanding of the technicalities of sound in cinema. They have decided to drop these awards all of a sudden without any discussions with stakeholders. There have been instances in the past where films that were not shot using sync sound (sound recording during filming), were awarded for sync sound. Instead of rectifying these, they have taken out all these categories. We have been seeking appointments with Ministers to make them understand that this is unfair,” sound designer Resul Pookutty, who won the Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing in 2009, told The Hindu.

Jikku M. Joshi, who handled the production sound mixing for the National Award-winning film Aattam, said that the decision to junk the awards is demotivating.

“It is discriminatory that the art of production sound is not valued. If the production sound mixer does not record the on-location dialogues and effects properly, the sound designer cannot create an aesthetic soundscape to aid the narrative. In the next step, the sound mixing engineer decides the way the film sounds in theatres and streaming platforms. These are different trades and the removal of any one out of the equation is unfair,” said Jikku.

According to Sound Mixing Engineer Ajith Abraham George, vice president of the Cine Audiographers Association of Kerala (affiliated to the Film Employees Federation of Kerala (FEFKA)), representations were sent from FEFKA, as well as the sound engineers’ unions in Chennai and Mumbai after the National Awards entry notifications were issued, but there has been no response from either the I&B Ministry, the Directorate of Film Festivals, or the National Film Awards Cell.

No committee is known to have recommended the dropping of these awards. So, whom did the government officials consult before taking such a decision?,” said Mr. George. The Kerala State Film Awards continue to present sound awards in the three separate categories.