DUB'onair in regional lingo

Cinema has no boundaries, many foreign language films manage to appeal to local audiences, irrespective of language, region and customs. All this, thanks to a relevant content-driven storyline and the making skills of a film maker with top-notch performances by actors and the dubbing. That extra effort to learn the local language is also a mark of a great actor.

Recently, Rinku Rajguru, who shot to stardom with the successful Marathi film Sairat, earned appreciation when she took that extra step by dubbing for her character in the Kannada remake.

Gone are the days when actors, especially female actresses, would blabber numbers from one to 10, or lip sync while shooting for different language films that they were not fluent or conversant in. More actresses are now taking interest in learning the language even if their voice is being dubbed by a dubbing artiste.

Rinku who was busy studying for her tenth exams, reveals that when she was initially asked to portray the same role in the Kannada remake, she was totally shocked and hesitant. “I had never heard Kannada in my entire life. How would I act in a film when I had no idea about the language? However, I was convinced I could learn the language, even though I could hardly understand a single word on my first day of the shoot. Everyone was strictly told to speak to me in Kannada even though I could not understand it. I had a Kannada teacher, and I picked it up very fast. Learning Kannada is easy if you have interest. Now, I can completely understand the language, though I fumble when I have to speak fluently,” says Rinku.

Actress Shanvi Srivastava, the Masterpiece actress is awaiting her next release in Kannada Saheba, which marks the debut of Manoranjan Ravichandran, the eldest son of Crazy Star Ravichandran. Shanvi says, “I have a unique problem. Many film makers feel that I sound like a kid with a low base voice. I have been learning Kannada ever since my first film Chandralekha, and I love the language. I can easily manage to converse in it. I guess, language should not become a barrier, and differentiating actresses based on just their language speaking skills is not a mature thing to do.”

Even though a dubbing artiste takes the voice away in the post-production, Shanvi adds that she makes sure that she follows the right path. “I do not use any kind of prompt nor do I just blabber numbers or any such thing. I speak Kannada to the best of my ability during the shoot, and I hope to lend my voice to the role soon.”

Director Kala Samrat S Narayan believes in making use of the original artiste for dubbing. “In the past, we have seen several senior actors such as Geetha, Saritha, Madhavi, etc who have to lent their own voices after learning the language, and gone on to have great careers. I prefer to use one’s own voice, and it is the director who has to make sure that the actors use proper diction and pronunciation. It gives more life to the character,” he adds.

Finally, Akanksha, who made her debut with RX Suri, and is now making her comeback alongside Digganth, says, “I came to Bengaluru for college and initially, I was not concerned about learning Kannada. Gradually, I found it difficult to communicate with people, and I finally realised that it was my duty to learn the language if I am planned on staying here. Moreover, I really cannot expect everyone to converse in English. As an actress, I guess we need to understand the script and dialogue to emote well, and without knowing the language, we tend to focus more on lip sync than  performance. Though there are other tricks as well to act, it wouldn’t work in terms of spontaneity. I have definitely realised the drastic change after I dubbed for the first time,” she says, summing up.