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Do you remember the sound of ‘clap – clap’ in the horror movie Conjuring or the screaming character in ‘Alone’? Sound is an integral part of each and every movie and it plays a more critical role in the horror genre. One of the largest horror productions of recent times- ‘Ghost Stories’, that is now streaming on Netflix, is another such series where sound plays a key role. ‘Ghost Stories’ is a Netflix Original that features four different stories directed by Zoya Akhtar, Karan Johar, Anurag Kashyap, and Dibakar Banerjee respectively. All the four filmmakers depicted ghost/fear/horror in their own way. And Banerjee smartly projected the current social and political scenarios of the country. From the fear of extinction to fight between classes and communities, Banerjee’s story stood out in the anthology.
The sound designer in Dibakar Banerjee’s Ghost story is Silchar’s Susmit Bob Nath. A moment of pride for the entire Barak Valley as the Vivekananda Road, Silchar resident found a spot in the prestigious credit roll of a series that is streaming on an international platform like Netflix. But this is not his first international fame. In 2015, he designed the sound in Chauthi Koot, a movie that made its way through to Cannes Film Festival along with Vicky Kaushal and Richa Chadha’s Masaan.
“Music always inspired me,” says Nath. He was a part of a local band in Silchar. Nath did his schooling from Silchar Collegiate School (1999) and then studied at GC College. Life has not always been a cakewalk for Susmit Nath who is more renowned as Bob (not Bob Biswas). Though he always wanted to get into music, due to financial stress at home, he had to join a call centre in Delhi. He rose ranks there, “But that is not what I wanted to do and where I wanted to be,” recalls Nath. After working for three years, he took the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) entrance test and cracked it at first go. The biggest film institute in the country which supplies one-third of the creative geniuses the country has produced so far opened new doors for him.
“I got into FTII the same year Resul Pookutty had won the Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire. It was an inspiring moment to see your senior win such a major award,” says Nath. He credits FTII for grooming him as a sound designer. It is also the place where he met the who’s who of Indian Cinema. “Before joining FTII, I didn’t know much about films, I had no clue about the Indie film circuit, Korean Cinema. FTII was a great enabler,” says Nath.
He studied in FTII from 2007 to 2012 and after completing his course he moved to Mumbai. ‘Chauthi Koot’ was his first film and Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s upcoming movie on the insurgency in Kashmir, ‘Shikara’ is his latest one. So far he has worked on several Hindi film titles like ‘Hawaizaada’, ‘Bewakoofiyan’, ‘Bhavesh Joshi’. “I have worked more in Independent cinemas which did really well in film festivals like Cannes or Mami in Mumbai,” says Nath.
However, Nath is not shying away from commercial mainstream cinema. After ‘Shikara’ he is now working on Dibakar Banerjee’s next title. He says working with him on ‘Ghost Stories’ was an inspiring experience. “He is one such director who understands the sound game very well. He was clear in his thoughts, he knew what he wanted and it was fun to work in his movie,” asserts Nath.
As a sound designer, Nath’s work starts with recording the dialogue in the sets and then eliminating noise and other disturbing elements from it. Recording various surround sounds, adding follies like footsteps, action sounds and all other necessary elements. Basically, apart from music, whatever we hear while at theatres and with headphones on, it is the sound designers who orchestrate it all.
For Bob, it’s a journey which has just started and he believes there is a long road ahead.
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