JAY JOSHI
If you are into Hollywood movies, you must have certainly heard of Samundar Ke Lootere or if you love Marvel cinematic universe, Fauladi Rakshak, or Angare Bane Sholay. You might feel that these names sound strange , but the fact is that you know these films well; only, you are not aware that you know them. Perhaps Pirates of the Caribbean, Iron Man, and Avengers rings a bell? Yes. these are the same hit Hollywood movies, only dubbed in Hindi for the Indian audience. From TV to theatres, Hollywood as well as South Indian regional films dubbed in Hindi are a big presence. How popular they are is a point of debate.
TG Life asked some of its readers what they thought of Indian movies.
“I do not have a problem per say about watching English movies dubbed in Hindi, but I feel that a lot of the substance is lost in translation,” said Sayli Kunkolkar from Vasco. “Even so, i wouldn’t say that dubbing English movies in HIndi is a bad thing to do. If the venture is helping take good international content to people who do not understand English, then it is a requirement. Perhaps serious classic Hollywood films should be dubbed-provided their essence is not lost in translation. And we could leave out the stuff like simple animated movies. Dubbing these will affect the feel of the movie.”
Contrary to Sayli’s stand however, reports suggest that dubbing industry first originated in India in the early 90s by dubbing disney cartoons for Indian kids. When this proved popular, it was extended to channels such as discovery, and later dubbing made its entry into movies. The first Hollywood film dubbed in Hindi and became a hit was Jurassic Park in 1993. On the growth trajectory since then, the dubbing industry in India now stands at around Rs 100-120 crore. All things said and done, there are still some issues.
“I do not prefer English movies dubbed in Hindi. It feels funny. The dialogues are sometimes translated wrongly and out of context, moreover, there is an attempt to indianise some characters,” stated Kabir Naik from Panaji. “Some other South Indian movies dubbed in Hindi are even more terrible.” he quipped.
Shrikrupa Desai from Ponda on the other hand stated that she enjoys watching dubbed movies, but for an entirely different reason. “I watch both original as well as dubbed movies. In many cases, the dubbing makes a hilarious attempt to Indianise the Western characters-like you have iron man referring to a spaceship as ‘flying Medu Wada’ or Dwayne Johnson saying ‘Are you Gajhini?’’. The dubbing has to be sensible, but that is rarely the case. I do not object to dubbing itself, but the quality of it” she said, but noted that even with such performance, many people actually like dubbed content. “On my part, I enjoy taking a good laugh at such attempts to turn Hollywood desi. Maybe the creators too want the dubbing to bring in an additional comic factor in the movies!”
Bicholim-based Mahesh Divekar however had a different view.
“Dubbing takes international content to people who do not understand English language. I myself enjoy watching dubbed movies, and particularly liked the way Hindi version of Jungle Book turned out to be. Watching it as a cartoon in early days, I had always thought it was Indian, and always imagined Sher Khan speaking in the voice of Nana Patekar.”
While a section of audience states that dubbed movies are not much fun, in reality, demand for dubbed content is growing across India. There are a number of companies across India that work full fledge to provide dubbing services. They draw around 60 percent of the revenue from TV, 30 percent from movies and 10 percent from OTT (over the top) streaming platforms. This picture however is set to change with OTT becoming a major revenue source.
