Keeping pace with Raima Sen’s Bengali, capturing Jackie Shroff’s mood, filling up Sameera Reddy’s pauses, studying Aishwarya Rai’s body language... A t2 chat with the voices of the stars.

Sudipta Chakraborty — Raima Sen’s Ashalata in Chokher Bali

Biggest challenge: Actually I don’t like the concept of dubbing for someone else and I don’t even like dubbing for myself. I think the quality of acting deteriorates because it’s very difficult to capture that moment again while dubbing. It is easier for an actor to relate to the role and emote and react... When I watched Raima in Chokher Bali it was from the audience’s— and not the actor’s — point of view. While dubbing I had no set, no costumes, no atmosphere. So creating the mood was most challenging.

Being Ashalata: I changed my tonal qualities to become Ashalata. I had to match Raima’s pitch. Raima speaks Bengali with an English accent. I had to speak in a thin voice keeping in mind Ashalata’s age. I had to talk very innocently also. Rituda (Rituparno Ghosh) guided me beautifully. He made me sit and watch Raima’s portions many times, to follow her gestures and postures.

A memorable moment: It was while dubbing for my role in Rituda’s Bariwali. There was a smooching scene between Chandan Sen and me. I couldn’t recreate the sound of smooching while dubbing. So Rituda stepped in and asked me to smooch my palm. And it was okayed. It was hilarious!

 

Soma Chakraborty — Sameera Reddy, the prostitute, in Kaalpurush

Biggest challenge: I have lent my voice to many actresses but dubbing for Sameera was quite a challenge. As I didn’t know her at all it was difficult for me to understand her pulse as an actress. I had to be extremely careful with the lip movements and match her pauses because she couldn’t speak Bangla. I had to cleverly fill up those gaps with monosyllables.

Being Sameera: I watched her portions in the film over 30 times. I studied the way she thinks, reacts and emotes and tried to listen to her voice. Sameera played a subdued, low-profile sex worker who is tired of her existence. So my voice had to match her body language which was that of a weary woman with no emotions. I had to talk in a low pitch. Creating the mood was very important. Dada (Buddhadeb Dasgupta) briefed me about the character and also told me a little bit of the story. He told me to underplay the role, be very flat.

A memorable moment: It was when I was dubbing for Tarun Majumdar’s Aranyer Adhikar. There was a scene in which my screen husband beats me with a bamboo stick and I let out a shrill scream. I somehow couldn’t do that while dubbing. So Tanuda (Tarun Majumdar) hit me with a cane; I screamed and it was okayed!

 

Bidipta Chakraborty — Sameera Reddy, the homemaker in Kaalpurush and the village belle in Ami Yaseen Aar Amar Madhubala; Raima Sen in The Japanese Wife

Biggest challenge: I am a different person while dubbing for someone else. That is the biggest challenge. A dubbing artiste should not just keep the character in mind but also the actress. Keeping pace with the lip movement is another big challenge.

Being Sameera and Raima: Sameera speaks very slowly, so I had to carefully look at her pauses. She spoke Bangla with a lot of difficulty. I had to fill up the pauses with sighs.... In Kaalpurush, she was a wife and a mother, a slightly middle-aged woman, so I had to match that tone. In Ami Yaseen... she is young, but the film has very poetic dialogues. It’s very important to keep the character’s age in mind. Though Raima is a widow in The Japanese Wife, she is young and since Raima speaks fast, I had to keep pace with her.

My mantra: I never do any kind of homework. Dubbing is very on-the-spot. For Sameera, I went to the dubbing studio and spoke in five different ways and Buddhada pointed out the right one. Rinadi (Aparna Sen) is a perfectionist; I had to speak exactly the way she wanted me to.

 

Sreela Majumdar — Aishwarya Rai’s Binodini in Chokher Bali

Biggest challenge: Dubbing itself is very challenging. To be somebody’s voice is very difficult. A detailed character study of the actress I would dub for is very important. When Rituda approached me to dub for Aishwarya I took it up as a challenge. That was the first and the last time I ever dubbed for someone.

Being Binodini: I followed her body language and her lip movements. I had to change my voice and bring in a different flavour. I had to talk like the characters of Rabindranath. Matching my dialogues with Aishwarya’s was very difficult as she couldn’t understand what she was saying! I used to watch her portions a lot of times. Rituda helped me understand Binodini better. Actually, I had to match his vision.

 

 

Kunal Padhi (theatre actor) —Rajat Kapoor, the businessman, in Anuranan

Biggest challenge: Catching the right spirit and essence of the character is very important. It is also necessary to generate the moment, which has already been captured on camera. The biggest challenge is to keep your cool and not get frustrated or feel that you are doing a favour to the actor, although you are!

Being Rajat: I first listened carefully to how Rajat spoke Bangla and then I tried to match his tonal quality and then his lip movements. It was also challenging because Rajat is a decently reputed actor, so the voice had to match his personality. It took me three days to dub his portion. Tony (Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, the director) was my guide.

 

Shantilal Mukherjee — Jackie Shroff, the zamindar, in Antarmahal

Biggest challenge: Building up the emotion of the character is very important. Matching his tonal quality and reading out the dialogues too is a challenge. Also while dubbing I try to match the actor’s physical activities.

Being Jackie: Jackie spoke most of his dialogues in Hindi; he was also offended as he had to mouth very difficult Bengali words. I changed my speech pattern to suit the character. Jackie was playing a 50-plus zamindar whose only work was to eat, sleep and drink. So my speech pattern was slow and my voice was heavy.... Jackie was so happy that when he came to do Raatporir Roopkatha he asked for me to do his dubbing. I was supposed to do a small part in the film but that was cancelled so that I could dub for him. I have decided never to dub again because I lose my work as an actor!