Gone are the days when dubbed Hollywood films were something that you enjoyed only on TV. Tamil-dubbed Hollywood films have become a huge draw in theatres, especially in single screens and rural areas today. Nothing augments this point better than the fact that of the 100-odd theatres in which this week's release, X-Men: Apocalypse, is being screened in Tamil Nadu, 60 screens are showing the dubbed Tamil version. This seems to be a trend across India, too, if one were to go by the box office contribution of the English and dubbed versions of the recent Jungle Book from Walt Disney in its first week of release ' 48% from English and 52% from the dubbed versions.
Talking about what is making Hollywood studios release dubbed versions of their films, a spokesperson at Fox Star India says, 'We have found that when it comes to Hollywood films, audiences here are keen on watching films that provide them experiences that local films cannot deliver. Dubbing such films into regional languages helps us penetrate into newer markets.'
Tent-pole movies ' big-budget extravaganzas with huge action set pieces and extraordinary visual effects, comic book adaptations, and franchises ' are what are being dubbed locally. 'Of late, we have started dubbing our animation films, too, after seeing that the collections of the dubbed versions of Ice Age: Continental Drift were more than that of The Dark Knight Rises when the two films released around the same time in 2012,' the spokesperson informs. Now, Sony Pictures India is releasing Angry Birds in a Tamil version as well. Not only that, after seeing the reception to the Tamil dubbed version (which was done by the local distributor) of its horror film The Conjuring, Warner Bros has chosen to dub and release the sequel, The Conjuring 2, in Tamil.
Currently, studios are releasing English and regional language versions in a 70:30 ratio, but the spokesperson says that this is likely to become 50:50 in the next few years, and predicts that using local celebrities for the voices will be the next step in the evolution of dubbed films.
Meenakshisundaram, the manager of a multiplex in the suburbs of Chennai, says these dubbed films run to full houses for the couple of weeks that they are screened. 'Families with kids and couples, rather than youngsters, form the core audience. The producers and distributors of Hollywood films request us to accommodate a couple of shows for the Tamil version. And given that the collections have been very good, we oblige. If we are having 10 shows of the English version, we have two shows of the Tamil version,' he says.
Typically, the studios outsource the dubbing to vendors, who then use their local teams to dub the film. These teams take care of both the translation of the script and the process of choosing and recording voice artistes. Translating the script of an English film into Tamil needs an understanding of the mood of the film and requires a certain sensibility, says Maruthabharani, a writer who has written the dialogues for almost 1,000 dubbed films in his 30-year-old career. He wrote the Tamil dialogues for Jurassic Park, which was one of the earliest Hollywood films to be dubbed in the language. He agrees that action and visual effects-heavy films are what sell here. 'Dubbing a film that is driven only by its story is a risky proposition. I tried doing so with the film Flight Plan, but it did not do well at the box office,' he reveals.
The son of yesteryear lyricist Maruthakasi, Marudhabharani is also the one who introduced the concept of using topical comedy in the dialogues and local slangs for the voices. 'I felt Chris Trucker's body language and dialogue delivery in Rush Hour 2 would suit the Madras slang and wrote the lines in that style. That got a great reception and today, many films have started following that approach,' he says. For Mirattal Adi, the Tamil-dubbed version of Kung Fu Hustle, which is considered as a cult classic by aficionados of dubbed films, he even added songs to make the action comedy funnier.
V Sashikumar, a language vendor in Chennai, is part of a Mumbai-based organisation that routinely takes up such dubbing projects. He has been in the industry for 15 years and has dubbed films like The Avengers, Fast & Furious 7, Life Of Pi, Kung Fu Panda 3, the X-Men franchise and the upcoming Warcraft. He says it is important to retain the essence and nativity of the original in the dialogues, and at the same time keep in mind local cultural sentiments. 'A writer should be alert to such things,' he says. Interestingly, most of his recent films have been written by 22-year-old M Deepika, who studied visual communication in Loyola College. 'For Deadpool, she wrote several drafts to capture the comic element in the scenes,' he reveals.
Choosing the voice artist is also crucial. 'In addition to the voice texture of the dubbing artiste matching that of the original actor's, their vocal modulations should suit the body language of the actor and not stick out,' says Sashikumar.
Dubbing these films takes 20-30 days and it is almost like the post-production work involved in the film. Most vendors use a regular set of people for their projects. Based on the marketing strategy of the studios and the experience of the people involved, the cost involved in dubbing a film in one language could be anywhere between Rs 5 and 8 lakh. While the return on investment is pretty good, it is the role they perform in expanding the market for Hollywood films that makes these dubbed versions invaluable for studios. 'We believe that we need to create a habit for people in the regional markets to watch dubbed content and for that it is important to invest in it in order to grow the share for Hollywood films. We are also seeing how dubbed films are helping attract newer audiences. The combined noise created for the English as well as the dubbed languages helps create a huge buzz for the film and thereby contributes to the growth in box office which makes the investment worthwhile,' concludes Vivek Krishnani, managing director ' Sony Pictures India.
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