When voices do their own act

Have you noticed how the quality of acting suffers in poorly dubbed films even if the actors are talented? A dubbing artiste has to be careful not to spoil the efforts of an actor who has breathed life into a character. On the other hand, sometimes the dubbing artiste can give better expressions through the voice than the actor.   

Sharran, who won the State Award for the Best Dubbing Artiste Male for the film White Boys, strangely never had cinema in his sights.

He wanted to be a singer and studied classical music for 14 years to achieve his goal. But after settling down in Kochi post marriage, he found himself turning to acting and later to dubbing for films.

Admitting his confusion, Sharran says, “I was at the crossroads wondering if I should dub or not when I got my first offer but my wife Rani gave me the confidence to go ahead.” That decision paid dividends in the form of the much coveted award, a news that reached him when he was caught in a traffic block.

Sharran explains, “I have dubbed for superstars like Ram Charan Teja, Mahesh Babu, Vijay, Junior NTR besides our Malayalam stars. Dubbing is very important because we infuse life into the characters and I know for a fact that even the superstars of Mollywood concentrate a lot on their dubbing. The acting may be great but the feel can be brought about only through the right kind of dubbing.”

Twenty five years into the profession, Sharran started off acting in a short film before going on to do TV serials. This was when he decided to take up acting as a profession and his dreams to sing faded into the background. Sharran admits, “Music has gone from my head and I am even scared to sing now! I have lost touch but I sing at stage shows.”

The actor in Sharran too is going strong with roles in films like the recent Love 24X7, Kerala Today and the upcoming Anna Mayil Ottakam, Brahmapadam and Satya Anweshana Pareekshanangal and he is all set to act in a serial. He treasures his friendship with director Anjali Menon whose first short film had him acting in it. He mentions, “She has been kind enough to give me a role in all her films.” Sharran is happy that his dreams are finding fruition and wife Rani — herself an actress and director — has been his pillar of strength.