"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.
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