"ENN PEYAR BOND... JAMES BOND”, says Agent 007 in a thick Tamil accent.
The line is a product of a thriving business that first surfaced 35 years ago, and has only expanded with the mounting demand for foreign flicks on big and small screens across Tamil Nadu. Hollywood films dubbed for Tamil audiences are screened in cinema theatres, appear on TV channels and are distributed as cheap DVDs, and with a total of 35 English films dubbed into Tamil in 2010 alone—not to mention the popular Hindi movies and reality shows that are doctored up for Tamil audiences and broadcast simultaneously with their original versions—dubbing artists in the state are busier than ever.
Ravi Deivanarayanan is arguably the busiest of them. A highly regarded dubbing artist based in Chennai, Ravi has brought to life in Tamil Pierce Brosnan as James Bond; Brendan Fraser in The Mummy and The Mummy Returns; Tom Cruise in the Mission Impossible series as well as in War of the Worlds; and Hrithik Roshan in Krrish and Dhoom 2, among countless others.
On an average day he swings between assignments as varied as mouthing Hrithik’s remarks on a TV dance show and dealing with the intricacies of Her Majesty’s secret service. Ravi, who has been in the industry for more than a decade, has witnessed the rise of the dubbed film in the state, helping to establish it as a genre of its own. “If not in the A centres, our work has brought a whole new option for movie-goers in the B and C centres. The release of the latest dubbed Hollywood movie is greeted much in the same way as a star-cast Tamil film.”
Admiring the fruits of his labour is especially gratifying when you consider his inherited attachment to the job. “My grandfather was a dubbing artist, being the first man to translate the script of Hindi films such as Rama Rajya (1946) into Tamil, and so were my parents, who gave voices for many hit films which were dubbed from Hindi or Telugu into Tamil. So for me this was always the only way to go,” he says, although he admittedly nursed ambitions of becoming a professional cricketer in his youth.
It’s a good thing he stuck with it. The industry may not have been lucrative at first, but the turning point for dubbing artists, Ravi says, was the unexpected success of the film The Mummy in 1999. “The Mummy ran in Tamil Nadu for well over a year, and this was the Tamil version. That is when people realised there is a whole untapped, profitable business here.”
Ravi also dubs for Tamil actors, notably for Abbas in several of his hit films, including Kadhal Desam and Minnale. He says the industry could benefit from better recognition of the role of dubbing artists, putting an end to their ‘ghost-like status.’ The lament apart, Ravi seems charged to play whoever comes along, be it Tom Cruise or the man in the new Hindi Surf Excel ad. “It runs in my blood ... this job.”