What they do
Sound designers are those who administer the right sound experience to the movie. Sanjay explains, "Right from the special effects to getting good dubbing done from the actors and applying various sounds to the movie creatively, is all done by sound designers. Sanjay explains, "The sounds of the city in Mumbai and that in Kolkata are very different. Mumbai has its road traffic and also railways; there are not many birds in Mumbai except crows. In fact there are many crows in Mumbai. While designing sound to one of the scenes that has to be portrayed in the city, we keep all this and much more in mind. Similarly, Kolkata is a quieter city and the voice administered to a movie shot there will be different."
The beginning
Neither Sanjay nor Alwin wanted to be a part of the film industry. Sanjay says, "I wanted to be a cricketer and was playing at a professional level. I was not selected to play a game because of some internal politics among the selectors and I decided to give up cricket.” He adds, “My older brother was into theatre and I visited one of his workshops. I was fascinated and next I knew I was doing theatre production. I have worked with Makrand Deshpande for 7 years."
For Allwin, his destiny came knocking at a rock show. He recalls, “I wanted to travel and wanted to be a sailor. A friend of mine met me at a rock show and told me that if I was not doing anything concrete in life I might want to work at the studio. I did and love it.”
Movies
Sanjay met filmmaker Anurag Kashyap in 1990 and assisted him as an assistant director in the unreleased Panch. Sanjay says, “I got interested in sounds and doubled up as a sound guy for Panch and while working for ‘Black Friday’, Anurag asked me if I wanted to do sound designing for the movie. I was more than willing to, and there began my journey as a sound engineer.
The partnership
Sanjay deals with the creative aspect of sound designing and Allwin with the technical part. Allwin says, "Sanjay and I met for some work and we liked working with each other so we decided to continue working with each other."
Pet project
Of all the movies that the duo has done, they are very proud of their work in Marathi film Dombivali Fast. Sanjay says, "We were paid very little and had loads of work to do. But the script of the movie was very interesting and we decided to work on the film." He adds, "We try our level best that the audiences relate to the character on the screen. We try to bring the audience as close to the character as possible and if that doesn’t happen than sound designers are no good."
Sanjay insists that sounds are a part of one's sub-conscious, but it is important that one captures all the minute sound details of a particular atmosphere or else there will be something amiss with that particular scene. Sanjay says, "We really do understand the character and follow the character. We concentrate on the character’s thought process. And that makes our job interesting as well as challenging." He adds, "Also getting the dubbing artists or an actor or actress dub correctly is an important task. I have been in theatre for 7 years and hence I do that job. Many a times when actors come to dub they are in completely different frame of mind. Through right communication a sound designer has to get them to emote just right."
Future projects
Currently, the duo is working on Rani Mukerji and Vidya Balan starrer ‘No One Killed Jessica’. And their next project is Sujoy Ghosh's Kahani that is entirely based in Kolkata.
In the near future, Sanjay wants to direct a film and Alwin wants to produce one.
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