“I have no issues about Pazhassi Raja not making it to the Indian Panorama section of the International Film Festival of India,” Oscar-winner Resul Pookutty has said.

Pookutty, who did the sound-mixing for the epic film, was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the 13th Kochi International Book Festival at the Ernakulathappan Ground.

“The jury’s decision is final and I respect that,” he said and added that he preferred to stay out of the current controversy between the Panorama jury and the film’s makers.

Earlier, at the Children’s Book Festival prize distribution, he urged students to take reading seriously because he believed “only then will you be able to extract knowledge from information. In this technology-driven world, today’s students are burdened with an avalanche of information, but they don’t know what knowledge is.”

Equality, political or economical, can only be partially achieved. But there is no discrimination when it comes to language. “Good language is our weapon for a better future”.

He said he realised the value of words only after he started writing a book about his journey into filmdom and the importance of sound mixing in movies. In all other media, only 10 per cent of the message gets transferred to the audience. But with books it can be assured that the entire message is available to the audience.

Pookutty also presented trophies to St Teresa’s High School, the Govt Girls High School, Tripunithura, and Mar Basil High School, Kothamangalam, which won the first, second and third places respectively at the Children’s Book Festival. Prof. M K Sanu, Sreekumari Ramachandran, Kanjiramattam Sukumaran and Geethalayam Geethakrishnan spoke.