In the wake of the sudden death of 29-year-old sound engineer, Nimish Pilankar -- following a bout of high blood pressure and haemorrhage last month - it has come to light that four more sound specialists of the Mumbai film industry, have also met with tragic ends this year.
All familiar to the Bollywood bigwigs, sound engineers Carl Alfonso and Hanif Tak, recordist Pinky More and composer Pritesh Mehta – in the primes of their lives – passed away. The tragedies have gone unreported so far.
Pritesh Mehta has to his credit the creation of several background music scores, including those of Guzaarish, Sarbjit, Tanu Weds Manu and Padmaavat. Alfonso was reputed for his impeccable music recordings and concert designs. Tak for being a congenial recordist with a soft corner for indie cinema. More was a sound recordist, whose Facebook page, is now packed with comments about his helpful nature.
To clarify, Nimish Pilankar was not subjected to over-stress (he worked on blockbusters like Race 3, Kesari and Housefull 4). His employees have described him as a chilled-out guy who was always smiling and spread good cheer. His sudden end came when he was at home with a friend.
The shock at the apathy of the top Bollywood brass on the loss of a young, dedicated sound engineer subsided to a degree when Akshay Kumar expressed his grief on Twitter. Vipin Sharma and Richa Chadha, too, emphasised their concern over the incident on social media.
The Oscar-winning sound maestro for Slumdog Millionaire, Resul Pookutty, has called for an inquiry into the working conditions of the sound department of films, asserting that a stand has to be taken instantly. Followed WhatsApp messages about the unreported deaths of Alfonso, Tak, More and Mehta.
It would be gratuitous to point fingers solely at the Federation of Western India Motion Pictures and TV Sound Engineers. Within the given infrastructure of the association can do only so much and no more.
Other disturbing deductions emerge:
To avoid any repercussions to their already-fragile careers, I quote some telling comments from young sound technicians, anonymously: “We’re here for the sheer passion of being involved in filmmaking. The junior assistants, particularly, cannot speak up. If they do, they are out of a job. A new one can be hired within minutes.”
Another stated, “When I couldn’t deliver an ad film – with changes demanded by the client within an absurd deadline, I was slapped on the face.”
Here’s what a woman sound technician stated - “Although my house is just a 10-minute walk away from a sound studio, I had to stay on the premises for 15 days… at the console, without a change of clothes. A toothbrush and toothpaste were all that I had. Somehow I survived.”
The statistics will perhaps never be tabulated. Yet, there’s no escaping the fact there’s been a spate of deaths of sound specialists this year. Bollywood bosses, obviously, have to wake up and reform the post-production system. How? As Pookutty puts it wistfully, “The answer is blowing in the wind.”
(The writer is a film critic, filmmaker, theatre director and a weekend painter)
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