Starry dubbing game to get viewers for Hollywood films
Hollywood films continue to vie for a bigger share of pie at the Indian box office. In a bid to attract more eyeballs, they are roping Bollywood biggies such as Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan to lend a desi touch in the dubbed versions.
The effort is only getting more personalised, with region-specific stars dubbing for projects in different languages, and actors also being voice cast with their children or siblings in sync with the onscreen relationships. Sample Priyanka and her cousin Parineeti Chopra as sisters Elsa and Anna in Frozen 2; Shruti Haasan and Divya Darshini for the film’s Tamil version; Aishwarya as Maleficent in Maleficent 2; Shah Rukh and son Aryan Khan as father-son duo Mufasa and Simba in The Lion King, Rana Daggubati as Thanos in the Telugu version of Avengers: Endgame, and Sanya Malhotra and Siddhant Chaturvedi as Molly and Henry for
Men in Black: International (MIB).
Why rope in such names? The idea is to make the audience feel “it has been specially curated for them in a language they understand and relate to”, says Bikram Duggal, head of studio entertainment at Disney India, the studio behind films such as Frozen 2, The Lion King and Maleficent 2.
Having home-grown stars also helps in better film promotions. “Most Indian actors have huge social media following, and by dubbing for a film, those who have lent their voice for the film, also aggressively promote it on their social media platforms. The Lion King is a recent example wherein SRK and Aryan not only enhanced the film’s marketing profile, but also added an excellent new marketing peg with SRK working with his son again,” says Kamal Gianchandani, CEO, PVR Pictures.
Does having a star onboard help? Duggal feels so. He says that the desi touch spikes the “viewership” of the Indian release. Where earlier the English and the dubbed versions had almost an equal viewership, now the ratio of audience watching English and dubbed version is almost 30:70, he says.
Agrees Vivek Krishnani, managing director, Sony Pictures Entertainment India, saying, “We saw a good 40 percent plus contribution from the Hindi MIB and Angry Birds 2.”
Meanwhile, actors are happy exploring the trend. While Sanya hopes she gets another opportunity, Parineeti says, “I was missing Mimi didi (Priyanka) while dubbing because I felt like I was seeing her and me on screen together… We always would talk about working together one day but we never got any opportunity till this happened.”
When actors are voice cast for dubs, the suitability of their voice and persona are kept in mind. “We got Kajol for Elastigirl in Incredibles 2 because we were looking at popular working mothers in their 30s and 40s,” explains Duggal. Gianchandani feels this is just the beginning, and the trend is set to grow. However, having a big star is no guarantee that it will work, says trade analyst Joginder Tuteja. He points out, “Maleficent didn’t do that well (at the box office).”