Overseas movies are not a new phenomenon in India, but the factor that connects Indians to those films are the dubbing artists who lend their voices to the characters in movies and increase their acceptability in India.
Even according to a cable of Wikileaks published in a National newspaper, big budget Hollywood action films dubbed in vernacular languages, have done relatively well in India. The Pioneer talked with a leading voice artist Rajesh Kava, who has dubbed the Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliff) character in Hindi for last three films of Harry Potter movie series which were epic box office success. Here are the excerpts;
“Voice over is like giving life to a dead body. This is an art were an artist performs behind the scene using his voice, representing a character performed on screen,” says Rajesh.
Sharing his preparations before giving voice to any character he says “If I am giving voice for a film, I try to understand the personality of the character in the film also personality of the actor in terms of his body language, style of dialogue delivery etc. as it is important to know and understand both to give justice to that particular role.
Rajesh Kava is the voice behind ‘Jaggu’ the pet monkey of Chhota Bheem animation character widely popular among children. Over voicing for an animation character he says “If I have to give voice for animation film, challenges are little different. As there are two possibilities- voicing for an established character which needs more or else same kind of preparation as compared to films and Voicing for an original animation movie where not only voice or body language but also the requirement of director- animator have to be understood to establish the character.”
Sharing his entry in film industry as a voice artist he says, “I had started my career as a theatre artist in the year 1996. I use to perform as an actor in Gujarati and Hindi theatre. I never had a thought of getting into voicing industry. I entered in voicing industry through the efforts of my elder brother Mukesh Kava.
Sharing his experience over Harry Potter he says, one generation has grown up with that movie sequel. My experience of giving voice to Daniel movies was extremely marvellous. I was called for an audition for his 6th movie ‘Harry Potter and the Half blood prince’ and along with 13 other Voice artists my audio clip was sent to Warner bros. Fortunately, my voice was selected as a permanent voice of Daniel Radcliff for remaining Harry Potter series. Rajesh is also dubbing for the lead character of Meera Nair’s upcoming movie The Reluctant Fundamentalist.