Debajit Changmai is the Head of Sound at FutureWorks, an end-to-end film production company covering different services, from visual effects to picture and sound post. As a veteran audio engineer, his career spans nearly two decades. Working across blockbusters, both in Bollywood and beyond, Debajit has collaborated with some of the most-respected directors in the film industry.
He is one of only four Indian voting members for the Academy Awards from the audio community, and was honored by the president of India in 2010. His recent credits include Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva, the highest-grossing Hindi film of 2022, and the 16th highest-grossing Bollywood movie to date.
What led you to pursue this career in sound work?
When I was graduating, I remember seeing the recording of a song on TV and I thought the control room was really cool. At the time, I was studying physics but I started looking into various film schools in India. That’s when I came across a studio in my home state of Assam. I started sitting in on live recordings and was really drawn to this profession. I was the first (and only) one of my family to go into this industry. Even now, my family doesn’t know exactly what I do!
Can you tell us about your pathway into the industry?
In 2002, I came to Mumbai, which is very far from my home state in East India. I started roaming all the mixing rooms in the city. After six months, I finally got an opportunity to work for one of the oldest film mixing studios in India. Soon after that, I started working for FutureWorks, right when the company started and have been here ever since.
What does your role involve?
At FutureWorks, I work as a re-recording mixer, leading a team of 34 people. In audio post-production, mixing is the last stage of the entire process. Every sound you hear in a film has to be balanced according to the script, at the director’s vision.
What is it about your role that most excites you now?
The final mixing studio is the one place where all the sound elements come together in one space. If you don’t mix the sound properly, it can spoil important moments in the movie, so it’s a really integral part of filmmaking. The most exciting part is that we can actually direct the audience’s attention to a particular point using the sound mix.
How do you help to convey the director’s artistic vision through sound?
Sound should be felt, rather than heard. We have the creative freedom to add any sounds, as long as they match the creative vision and the mood of the film. The beauty of sound mixing is that it’s not a technical thing— it’s all about flowing with the scene. As a mixing engineer, I believe the audio should sound aesthetically correct, rather than technically correct. It’s not just the attention of the audience that you’re guiding, but also their emotional response.
How would you describe the culture at FutureWorks?
I’ve been with FutureWorks since 2002 so I’m one of its longest-serving employees. In this industry, people don’t tend to work more than five years at one company, but I’ve been at the company for more than 20 years because they’re very friendly and they’re always very supportive and quick to provide anything I need for the betterment of the work.
How do you collaborate within the sound department?
We don’t have a universal grammar in this profession, so it’s all subjective. That’s why it’s very important to get along with all the people you work with. As a mixing engineer, I try to align myself to other people’s thought processes, so my biggest challenge is to quickly switch to align with the thought processes of the team on each film I work on. The team has a mutual respect and understanding, and our collaboration with the director is also really important.
What industry changes have impacted you the most and how?
New technology gives us more creative freedom but it changes all the time, so it’s a continuous learning process. Technology should help you to bring your vision onto the screen, but we shouldn’t misuse the technological advantage. The core of the film remains the same, irrespective of the technology used.
What are you proudest of in your career?
I’ve been lucky enough to work with all of the top directors in India — that was really a dream come true for me. I was also very pleased to meet and work with filmmaker Mira Nair, when I mixed one of her films, The Reluctant Fundamentalist. I’m very proud to have carved out a 20-year plus career in this industry, and to become a voting member for the Oscars, after coming to Mumbai from a small town in a little-known state.
Debajit is a veteran audio engineer with a career spanning more than two decades. Having joined FutureWorks’s ranks in 2002, Debajit heads up the sound department of the studio’s postproduction arm in Mumbai. He is one of only four Indian voting members for the Academy Awards from the audio community, and has been awarded by International Indian FIlm Academy for his work on Barfi, Bhag Milkha Bhaag, and Haider.
