Thaindian News

New Delhi, June 16 (IANS) Oscar winner Resul Pookutty is providing three new scholarships to students from Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) who are willing to carve a niche for themselves in the Indian film industry.

Pookutty, who won the prestigious Oscar award for the best sound design for 2008 film “Slumdog Millionaire”, launched the annual scholarship worth $5,000 (Rs.224,000) in 2010, in collaboration with International Indian Film Academy (IIFA), to promote the budding technical talent in the Indian film industry.

“I come from a very small village in Kerala where I dreamt of being a filmmaker and a film student. I am sure there are many who would be dreaming about it. So I decided, I want to give that dream back to one of those who are willing to carve a niche for themselves,” Pookutty told reporters at the IIFA press conference Thursday.

“In 2009, IIFA came up to me and asked what can we do to take the Indian technical talent on a global platform? Then we, along with some of the seniors of the film industry came up with the idea of Resul Pookutty IIFA Foundation and providing a scholarship to budding talent. With this scholarship we will take care of some of the brilliant minds who are doing their film studies from FTII which is one of premier institutes,” he added.

“We began in 2010 with one scholarship as a part of programme. In 2011, we initially planned to give two scholarships but now we are giving three scholarships,” Pookutty said.

After enthralling the audiences in Sri Lanka, the IIFA Weekend will be held in Toronto, Canada, June 23-25. The organisers promise a star-studded show with actors like Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan. Priyanka Chopra, Bipasha Basu, the Deols among others setting the stage on fire.