Oscar award winning sound designer Resul Pookutty has been appointed the new chairperson of the Kerala State Chalachithra Academy. Actor Cuckoo Parameswaran has been made the Vice Chairperson.
The appointments were announced in a government order more than a year after filmmaker Ranjith had resigned as chairperson of the Academy, following allegations of sexual harassment in August 2024. Actor Prem Kumar, who was Vice Chairperson at the time, took on the role of temporary Chairperson until the new appointments were made. Recently, the High Court quashed the case against Ranjith.
Resul Pookutty rose to fame after winning the Academy Award in 2009, the same year that AR Rahman won his two Oscars for music composition, for their work in Slumdog Millionaire. Resul has worked in south Indian films as well as Hindi and Marathi movies. He engineered sound for movies like Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Black and Saawariya, Mani Ratnam's Ra.One, Sanjay Gupta's Musafir and Zinda. He also worked in Mammootty's period drama Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja, Rajinikanth's Enthiran, Allu Arjun's Pushpa movies and Prithviraj's Aadujeevitham. He made his debut as a filmmaker in 2023 with the movie Otta, featuring Asif Ali and Arjun Ashokan.
The Academy organises the prestigious International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) as well as the International Documentary and Short Film Festival (IDSFFK) every year. Renowned editor Bina Paul has put together most of these editions in her capacity as former Vice Chairperson as well as artistic director of the festival. In February 2022, Prem Kumar replaced her as Vice Chairperson of the Academy. Last year there were speculations that Bina Paul and other women were considered for the chairperson’s post, following suggestions raised by women's organisations including the Women in Cinema Collective.
