Sagar Puranik opens up on controversy surrounding his National award-winning film Dollu

The recently announced 68th National Film Awards have courted a bit of controversy. Sagar Puranik’s maiden directorial venture, the Kannada-language film Dollu, was bagged the  Best Kannada Film award. It also, controversially, won Best Audiography under the category of Location Sound Recordist, which is for sync sound films only. Dollu is a dubbed film and does not use sync sound, thus making this an erroneous category for the film to be awarded in. 

Nitin Lukose, the sound engineer for Dollu, tweeted recently, “I don't know what happened behind the curtains of the National Award selections and its procedures, But I pity the judgement of the jury who couldn't differentiate between a dub and a sync sound film, claims to be the experts in the scenario (sic)."

Director Sagar Puranik spoke about his film on the popular folk art form of Karnataka, Dollu Kunitha, being judged the Best Kannada Film. Describing how he felt in the moment, he said, “Ecstatic, surreal…I was also hoping that something would work for us. We’ve had a great festival run and the appreciation, applause and awards we received were probably hinting at something [coming] our way…I was like a Class X boy waiting for the results when I was watching TV [waiting for the announcement]. It feels great that the esteemed jury, DFF [Directorate of Film Festivals] and the ministry have found this film worthy of recognition. I am very grateful to our team and all the artists who have supported us.”

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However, the controversy regarding the second award seems to have overshadowed this win. Explaining the events that unfolded, he said, “When we applied for the National awards, there is an application form…in the Audiography section, there is location recordist, sound design and final mix. When we filled in the segments, we had Jobin Jayan, who was the location recordist, Nithin Lukhose who was the sound designer and Krishnanunni who has done a great job of mixing all the tracks. When the awards were announced, the same categories were mentioned, along with a new bracket, a condition probably, which said ‘sync sound only’. There was a bracket in the announcement but those brackets were not mentioned in the application form. Suppose, if at all, the brackets had been mentioned there, it would have been unethical and immoral of me to apply there and I don’t have the need to fill up something that I haven’t done…This was the confusion [in the award announcement] and we are still waiting for confirmation… We would never claim for our film to be a sync sound film.”

Wondering about what may have possibly led to the film being awarded in the category, Puranik said, “The eminent jury, I’m guessing, would have realized that it is really hard work to recreate the complex beats, the sounds of the drums, and there are three-four performances. I am guessing that they have acknowledged the hard work that has gone behind recreating the entire sound in the film. I am guessing this is the case and if so, then I am really grateful to the jury, but we would never claim our film is a sync sound film.”

The Dollu performances are the highlight of the film, with the cinematography capturing the rhythm, movement and energy of the dance performed by a mix of talented actors and trained practitioners.

“We recreated these sounds, not in the studio but we’ve also recorded the sounds while shooting, which might not necessarily be sync sound but we have these multiple layers and we had Mr Jobin Jayan come in from Kerala and he got all his equipment, which is normally used for sync sound and all the Dollu drummers and every beat, every performance was recorded in a similar location,” Puranik explained.

Speaking about whether or not the controversy had in some way dented his joy and enthusiasm, he said, “The entire team is gutted. Of course, we are really happy that the film has been noticed but that celebration out of us has not come out yet. We acknowledge and are humbled that we have received these awards but the National media and media from different states are talking about the award for sync sound and not the film-winning Best Kannada film, which makes you wonder, why does this happen? We are hoping that the sound issue will be sorted soon and we are definitely celebrating the Best Kannada Film award. Our stand and intentions are clear. I’m sure this entire thing will be sorted in a matter of days.”

While the analysis of what really went wrong during the awards is going on and a decision is underway, Puranik graciously commented, “No one intended for anything bad to happen. We are all human at the end of the day. If mistakes can happen at the Oscars and Miss Universe… We are human. I am sure this is a small confusion that will be sorted and want to thank the jury and DFF for recognizing the film.”