It's sad makers spend millions in marketing but spend poorly on dubbing: Sharad Kelkar

MUMBAI: Actor Sharad Kelkar, who voices the character of Ravan in the animated series ‘The Legend of Hanuman’, has expressed his displeasure over poor dubbing choices in the industry.

The actor told IANS that this is particularly "frustrating because the content that has the potential to break new grounds in the Hindi market goes to waste because the makers don’t want to spend much on the dubbing process".

Talking about the same, he said: "The craft of voice-modulation and voice acting is not appreciated in the industry which I’m very angry about. I have seen such brilliant content in English or even from south India, it has the potential to disrupt new markets but it all goes to waste when the content is dubbed in Hindi."

He further mentioned: "Most of the time the dubbing is so bad, sometimes knowingly with the lack of budget ruining the viewing experience for the audience. And then they cry 'ki Hindi belt se collections nahi aaye' (that collections from the Hindi belt are bad). Arre if you dub it so badly why will people put their money and watch a badly dubbed film? A layman can also say, ‘Arre kya kharab dub hai?’."

He explained dubbing is a serious craft that can make or break a film.

He said: "My point is you spend millions in marketing that film but when it doesn’t perform well in Hindi, you cry over it. I’ll give you one example where the right dubbing made a huge difference. Ninad Kamat voiced Thanos in the Hindi version of ‘Avengers: Endgame’, and it worked big time. He is the best dubbing artiste from India and they paid him the money. The result of a good investment is there for everyone to see in this case."

'The Legend of Hanuman' Season 3 will stream on Disney+ Hotstar from January 12, 2024.