UmaMaheswari Relangi is a much sought after dubbing artiste in Tamil cinema. She has worked in over 50 films so far, most of which have been award winning and acclaimed. Interestingly, despite being a Telugu girl with roots in Palakollu, the recently released Guru was the first straight Telugu film that Uma ever gave her voice to. And ever since the film’s release, she has been the talk of the town. Insisting on speaking in Telugu, Uma, niece of well-known Telugu director Relangi Narasimha Rao shares, “I mostly speak in Tamil as I stay in Chennai. It feels really nice to hear people speak in Telugu. It’s refreshing.”
Uma never thought she’d choose this career. “My first audition was totally unexpected as I was accompanying a friend and eventually got selected. I didn’t seriously consider it as a career at that point and kept giving my voice to ads and jingles. But in 2010, the Tamil film Kalavani was received well and I became really busy after that. Luckily for me, challenging roles kept coming, and that’s probably the reason I became popular.”
Uma rues the fact that her family has rarely watched her films because they were all in Tamil. “Despite an experience of so many films, doing a Telugu movie was a totally new experience. I started off with a bit of nervousness because it’s my mother tongue and I wanted to do it perfectly, especially since my whole family would be eagerly watching! But fortunately, I had already worked on Irudhi Suttru, the Tamil version of the film, which is a turning point in my career. While I had taken 15 days to dub in Tamil, I finished it in five days in Telugu! It is a very nuanced character and I understood it well this time because of the earlier experience,” explains Uma, who’s known to have a distinct voice for every character she is given. On a parting note Uma tells us, “I have really been waiting to work in Telugu, and I am glad I kicked off on a positive note.”
