While many great actors have made their mark as experts in voice-over, local artistes are yet to reap the rewards of the billion dollar global entertainment industry. The pay for a voice-over session can be as low as Rs 500 in the state
BHUBANESWAR: For many, the term ‘voice-over’ is confusing. It is a production technique where a voice is used in a radio, television, production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentations. The voiceover is read from a script and may be spoken by someone who appears elsewhere in the production or by a specialist voice talent.
Voice-over artistes are an important part of the billion dollar global entertainment industry. Earlier, voice-over used to be done by professional voice-over actors and artistes, but in the last decade big stars and actors started providing voice-over services in movies.
Some Hollywood stars like Robin Williams, Mark Hamill, Tom Hanks, Ben Stiller, and Jack Black were not only great actors, but also voice-over artistes.
Actors like Seth MacFarlane of Family Guy, James Earl Jones who provided voice to super villain Darth Vader and cartoon character Mufasa in the animated movie ‘The Lion King’, and Mark Hamill who gave voice to cartoon character Joker have made their mark as experts in voice-over.
Recently, Hindi film superstar Shah Rukh Khan said that he and his son Aryan Khan had given their voices to the Hindi dubbed version of Disney’s upcoming live action movie ‘The Lion King.’ In this film SRK gave voice to iconic character Mufasa and Aryan to Simbaa.
In Odisha, there are many voice-over artistes, but unlike their counterparts in the Hindi film industry and Hollywood, they don’t have many good things to say about their profession.
Orissa POST talked to local voice-over artistes to delve deeper into the subject. Actor and voice-over artiste Gurunath Reddy, popularly known as Disco Reddy, said that Aryan Khan is a star son and will definitely get help from his father, but doing voice-over assignments is more difficult than acting as the artiste have to display the entire range of emotions through voice. I hope Aryan will be able to do that, he added.
He said that in Odisha voice-over artistes don’t get attention like other artistes. They are needed in TV serials, movies, radio and TV programmes and ad commercials, but they don’t get much money as the industry doesn’t want to spent big on them.
Odia TV channels and others who hire voice-over artistes differ in remunerating them. They are paid on the basis of hours put in. An experienced artiste can get Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000 per session, while beginners get only Rs 500 or less, said Reddy.
Bullet Mohanty, another voice-over artiste who has been in the field for 14 years, said the biggest problem for voice-over artistes is that TV channels want only people who demand less.
An average Odia movie costs Rs 90 lakh to make, but most of the money is spent on production and actors. When it comes to voice-over artistes, producers force them to work for less. He said that nobody can come up without godfathers in this field.
Prakash Chandra Routray said that voice-over artistes in other states and abroad earn handsomely. However, in India, they are replaced easily. Routray works as a laboratory technician too apart from being a voice-over artiste in TV serials and movies.
Sujata Pattaanaik, an All India Radio RJ, has given her voice in many mythological serials like BR Chopa’s Mahabaharat and for negative characters in Odia TV serials.
She said the main problem is the lack of unity among voice-over artistes. “If we jointly object to our low salaries than there can be changes. The voice-over artiste’s job is as important as that of others in the entertainment industry, but the industry doesn’t value us,” she said.
Meanwhile, producer Ajay Mohanty said, “Dubbing artistes must raise their problems through their organisations so that their problems can be sorted out.”
Arindam Ganguly, OP
