From ban to boom: Revival of Kannada dubbing

For 50 years, dubbing in Kannada was informally banned. Now, with the advent of OTT, it is coming back in a big way. Industry experts talk to Pranati A S about the opportunities and challenges ahead

After remaining in the shadow of an unofficial ban for decades, dubbing in Kannada has gained momentum, giving rise to a new industry. The rise of OTT platforms and pan-Indian content since the Covid pandemic has fuelled the demand.

Ironically, film historian K Puttaswamy points out that dubbing technology was pioneered by Kannada technicians. “The producers of the 1943 Kannada film ‘Sathya Harishchandra’, R Nagendra Rao and Subbaiah Naidu, experimented with replacing the original Kannada dialogue track with a different language. With the help of AVM Productions, they successfully dubbed the film into Tamil,” Puttaswamy says. Interestingly, a film based on ‘Sathya Harishchandra’ was made in Tamil around the same time, but the Kannada dubbed version was a bigger hit in Tamil Nadu.

Puttaswamy further notes that when only a few Kannada films were released between 1955 and 1956, Telugu films dubbed in Kannada became popular in Karnataka. Since they were mostly based on mythology and folklore, they had a universal appeal.

The growing presence of dubbed content led to protests. Two opposing camps emerged: one argued that dubbing would create more job opportunities for Kannada artistes, while the other feared it would threaten the Kannada film ecosystem by flooding the market with external content.

This tension led to the long-standing unofficial ban, which was only lifted after two pro-dubbing activists challenged it in court in 2015, calling the restriction unconstitutional.

The ban had unintended consequences for many Kannada-speaking children, especially in rural areas. They were deprived of access to educational content, such as shows on National Geographic and Discovery, which were dubbed into other Indian languages.

Poor translation, a concern

Kannada dubbing artistes share the opportunities and challenges that
lie ahead.

Vinayak Pujar, active in Kannada dubbing (both voice and translation), says gaps in communication are a primary reason for poor translations, as most projects originate in Mumbai. He illustrates this with a brief he once received from an agency: “I was asked to write a dubbing script in 50 percent Mandya slang, 20 percent Bengaluru slang, and the rest in Mysuru Kannada, with addressals in Hindi. It made no sense, but I eventually wrote it in that style.”

However, Sparsha R K, known for dubbing films like ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ and ‘Padmavat’, says translations have improved recently. “Now that a lot of people are watching content in Kannada, agencies are more concerned about quality. Badly dubbed scenes get trolled on social media,” adds Sparsha, who is also a
playback singer.

Chinese miniseries are a new trend in the market, and they are being dubbed into Kannada. “The Kannada translation is done based on the English subtitles. We write by referring to the subtitles, which are usually shorter than the actual dialogues. So it’s translated based on the context,” Vinayak explains.

According to well-known dubbing artiste Mona Ghosh Shetty, a major challenge is “finding people who know the source and target languages equally well”. Explaining the process of adaptation, she says the creative team considers cultural differences to decide what can be retained from the original and what needs to be changed to suit local preferences. Her company, Vision and Sound India, specialises in localisation for media content and has a studio in Bengaluru.

Vinayak recalls a script where the original dialogue ‘He stuck out like a sore thumb’ was translated to ‘Avnu baata hebberalinante aache nintidda’. It was a verbatim translation that did not imply the original meaning. “In the long run, it’s a terrible thing because kids are going to watch this,” he says.

Harshil Koushik, an actor and dubbing artiste, had a similar experience. The original dialogue was “holy f*ck” (with the expletive beeped), but the Kannada translation read ‘Pavitra beep’.

Money matters

According to Vinayak, the writers for most series are paid about Rs 3,000 per episode. “When the work is so underpaid, a lot of writers use AI or Google Translate. The final product suffers,” he says.

Poor pay has long been a concern. Raghavendra Mayakonda, who used to translate for National Geographic and Discovery, was paid Rs 1,200 for a 50-minute episode and expected to deliver 10 episodes a week. “I eventually stopped doing it. It wasn’t worth the effort,” says Mayakonda. At the time he tried using Google Translate but found the output too “strange” and avoided it.

Dubbing has, however, opened up work avenues for a cross-section of people. During Covid-19, TV channels began dubbing series into Kannada. It became a source of income for many theatre artistes who had no work at the time, recalls Harshil.

“The dubbing industry has created jobs for many directors, artistes, and people who can write and know a language well,” adds Sparsha.

“Kannada serial artistes are not paid very well. So dubbing becomes an additional income,” says dubbing artiste Avinash Kamat.

Mona’s company attracts people from varied backgrounds — theatre artistes, actors, some who are in the media, and college graduates. “Some are completely unrelated to the field. People with day jobs also dub in the evenings or on weekends,” she says.

AI threat?

Vinayak recently dubbed for a superstar in a film — but his voice was replaced with the actor’s voice using AI. “It takes away the value of the artiste,” notes Harshil.

Sparsha and her colleagues watched the said film in theatres and thought the AI-assisted voice sounded robotic in places and even glitched. “The voice-over industry may face a threat, but for movies and series, I don’t think a human voice can be replaced,” she says.

In advertising, Avinash sees AI as a real concern. “Right now, the niche software is expensive. But as technology advances, it will become cost-effective — so yes, it’s a threat to some extent.”