Learning Never Stops - Amrit Pritam (Sound Designer - Bollywood)

Even though I spent more than 18 years and having experience of more than 150 films in the Indian Film Industry, I don’t think I’m fit enough to advise others, as I am still a student and still learning from each film

Tell us more about your background and journey.

I was born and brought up in a cultural family in a small beautiful city Jorhat Assam. My mother is a satriya dancer & a theatre artist, and my father was a freedom fighter and also a theatre artist and my elder brother Bhagawat Pritam is a guitarist, a musician, and also an actor in Assamese Film and the television industry, So I grew up with music and theatre since my childhood. After I completed my graduation with Physics honours. 

I decided to join film school for Sound Engineering course, so I joined Dr Bhupen Hazarika Regional Govt Film and Television Institute and completed my 3 years of Sound Engineering in the year 2002. After completion of my sound Engineering, I came to Mumbai in the same year. Almost struggling for a year to get a job, finally, I managed to get a job as a Sound Editor at the Studio Fireflies Post Sound Andheri West,

I was exposed to world cinema and the art of Sound Design at this wonderful studio and I tried my best to explore the world of art of Sound Design,

So since 2002 to date, I have done more than 150 films and documentary and short films as a Sound Editor and Sound Designer and managed to win the prestigious National Award ( President Award ) for Sound Design in 2009, apart from that I have also won three State award for sound Design from three different states Assam, Maharashtra, and Goa, and became the 1st Indian Sound Designer along with Resul Pookutty to have won MPSE Golden Reel Award ( Motion Picture Sound Editors ) in Hollywood Los Angeles ( www.mpse.org). The Biggest moment of my carrier was when I was inducted as a member of the world’s biggest film organization The Academy OF Motion Pictures Arts and Science are popularly known as OSCAR ( www.oscars.org) in 2017.



When did you first decide you wanted to pursue Sound Engineering and how did you start?

I already mentioned that after my graduation with Physics as honours, my elder brother and my father encouraged me to join Sound Engineering, And finally, I got selected into Dr Bhupen Hazarika Regional Gov. Film And Television Institute in Guwahati Assam in 1999 

Could you tell briefly about the art of Sound Design for films?

The Art of Sound Design is nothing but an abstract audio painting where we use a different source of sound (All-natural environment sounds likes birds, sea waves, night cricket, vehicles, animal sound, Rain, wind etc. etc) to create the audio canvas for every different scene of a film. So each scene is a different audio canvas for us, so instead of using colours, we use a source of audio to create the canvas.



Can you throw some light on opportunities one gets as a Sound Designer?

See, it's completely a professional work, so it entirely depends on the individual how he or she can perform in this highly competitive field, here, nobody going to ask you about your qualification, it's all about your standard and quality of performance and skill to perform, As long as any individual expose his talent and extraordinary skill of performance, he or she can reach a very high level.



Is formal training required or can one train themselves purely on the basis of talent?

Talent and skill always take any individual to another level, but proper basic training will provide you with a strong base, The proper training will guide you on how to move scientifically step by step, but after all, at the final stage, it's your aesthetic talent will give you the proper satisfaction, It’s a purely artistic medium, and you should have an aesthetic imaginary mind to explore and execute the artistic beauty with the help of your basic training science.



What piece of advice would you like to give to future and aspiring artists?

Even though I spent more than 18 years and having experience of more than 150 films in the Indian Film Industry, I don’t think I’m fit enough to advise others, as I still a student and still learning from each film, but instead of advice, I may request to every newcomer to working extensively hard with full dedication to reach their final goal




Interviewed by - Shruti Gupta