Arindam Ganguly, OP
BHUBANESWAR: Technology, perfect cast or engaging storyline—Are these the only things that make a movie hit? No, there’s one thing that’s missing in the list. The magical voices of the characters are as important as other aspects of a flick. Not to forget, but a film’s appeal is also dependent on the voice-over artistes, who put life into the otherwise dead scripts. Dramatic voice-overs pack the punch in a movie. It’s best to cite the example of Baahubali2 to understand the importance of voiceovers. The success of Baahubaali franchise was not solely dependent on technology and the actors. The dialogues of characters played by Prabhas had attracted the audience to a great extent. The dialogues in Hindi were dubbed by actor Sharad Kelkar. When
Hollywood films are released in different languages, voice-over artistes play an important role. Recently, Arshad Warsi had lent his voice to Johnny Depp for his upcoming flick—Pirates of the Caribbean-Dead Men Tell No Tales. The Oriya film industry is also using dubbing artistes for movies, TV serials, commercials and radio shows. There are more than 200 artistes lending their voices to different characters. Their voices are used for actors from other states like West Bengal and Mumbai. However, the artistes claim that they are struggling against poverty and lack fame in the state. Although huge amounts of money are spent for making an Oriya film, the voice-over artistes get peanuts in terms of compensation. “The major portion of the money involved goes to the actors, directors and producers. We are still paid a meager salary,” claimed
Bullet Mohanty, a voice-over artiste, who has lent his voice to over 200 films and serials in the past 12 years. “The producers and middle men take away most of the profit. When we opposed this and demanded hike in salaries, they threatened
to remove us from the job,” he added. “Many artistes work as freelancers because it is not a profitable sector any longer. There is no consistency in the work flow. A voice-over artiste can earn Rs 10000 only, after working in 10 films,” said another artiste,
Prakash Rout. “We don’t get awards or accolades for our work like actors or directors. Sometimes, it hurts a lot that you are not recognized for your efforts. The credit for your hard work goes to others,”said Rashmi Rekha Jenaalias Rani, who had dubbed for leading actors like Barsha Priyadarshini and Jhillik Bhattacharya. “Unlike other associations of technicians and film makers, the dubbing artistes association— formed a few years back—has not done anything substantial for the rights of the artistes. The reasons behind this are self-indulgence, greed and lack of unity among artistes,” Mohanty claimed. “The producers fail to ac
knowledge our hard efforts often. We keep changing our styles and modulate the voice as per the character. But, there is no respect or money for us,” Rani lamented. According to Mohanty, there was a lot of work from 2008 to 2015 for the voice-over artistes. But, things changed later and there is a scarcity of projects for the artistes. Meanwhile, producers denied such allegations. “The voice artistes are offered salaries and made to sign contracts before the shoot of the film starts. If they had any complains about the salary, then they should object at the very beginning and not cry over it later,” said producer Ayash kant Mohanty. “The dubbing artistes must talk to about their issues through their associations so that their problems are sorted out,” said another producer, Sanjay Chaudhary.
