Now, Hollywood blockbuster dubbed into Kannada set for release

Defying opposition

Defying resistance against dubbing culture in Kannada film industry, a Mumbai-based production house has dubbed an English movie which is likely to be released this week-end.

The film, titled in Kannada as ‘Vega Mattu Udwega-8’ (VU-8) is the Kannada version of ‘Fast and Furious’ released on April 14. VU-8 is the first ever Kannada movie dubbed from a Hollywood film. 

Asmith Samanth of Shakti Films has bagged dubbing rights of the English movie. The film has been dubbed in Hindi, English, Telugu and Kannada. Shakti Films had planned to release UV-8 on April 14.

However, the release was postponed due to lack of theatres and also in the wake of recent protests against the release of ‘Sathyadev IPS,’ the Kannada version of Tamil film ‘Yennai Arindhaal.’

News a secret
“The crew kept the news of dubbing of Fast and Fury-8 into Kannada secret as situation is not still ripe for dubbed movies in Karnataka. In all probability, VU-8 should be released this weekend,” an artiste involved in UV-8 in Mumbai told Deccan Herald.

The dubbing began in March. Shakti Films roped in Arusha Shetty and Jayasheel Suvarna, both translators and voice-over artistes in Mumbai. Arusha, a writer-cum-theatre personality and Suvarna, the founder member of Association of Voice-Over Artistes in Mumbai hail from Mangaluru. They have lent their voices for many advertisements, documentaries and short films in Kannada. “It took about two weeks for us to translate the script in Kannada. The biggest challenge was finding correct words to adjust lip movements of actors” Arusha said.

Dubbing artistes
Besides Arusha and Suvarna, Shivaraj Suvarna, Mohan Marnad, Shiva Suratkal, Avinash Kamath, Surendra Marnad, Roopa Bhat, Abhinanda Tejaswi, Chandana Bala, Radhika Rao, Latesh Pujar and Ramesh Shivapur have lent their voices. These artistes hail from Karnataka and have settled in Mumbai.

“VU-8 will herald a new dawn for dubbed movies in Kannada film industry as we roped in the best talent for the dubbing.  Why should a section in film industry resist the release of dubbed movies when they don't oppose the release of Tamil and Telugu movies?” Suvarna said.

“They don’t oppose the export of actors, musicians and technicians from other states and even Pakistan. They should understand that dubbing surely opens up new job opportunities. They should come out of fixed ideas and think about bigger spectrums,” he said.