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By:
JBR
Dubbing films provides a route for those who cannot raise funds to produce big budget films and a training ground for those who want to venture into production. Dubbing films deserve major credit for making audience come to the theatres whenever Tamil films were slow in coming. Audience also gets to know of the talents from beyond the state borders from these films. Vijayashanti who was ruling the Telugu films received a major welcome to Tamil only through a dubbed film 'Poo Ondru Puyalagirathu.' It also cannot be forgotten that it was Dr. Rajasekar's dubbed film 'Idhuthanda Police' that set a new trend. Yet another dubbed film that was made in Telugu that needs to be mentioned is Ram Gopal Varma's film 'Siva.' This film released in Tamil with title 'Udayam' starring Nagarjuna, Amala and Raghuvaran was a great success among the youth. This film also shaped a strong future for gangster films.
Not many Malayalam films get dubbed in Tamil as the two languages have close associations and they lack the fight sequences and glamour dances. That status continues till today. However, Malayalam films maintain their strong position in Tamilnadu.
These are all only marginal. Dubbing producers' first target are English films. There are so many Hollywood films that keep dubbing producers happy: they are martial arts films by Jackie Chan and Jet Li; action films featuring Tom Cruise, Van Damme and Will Smith; science fiction films and gigantic productions of directors like Peter Jackson, Tony Scott, Ridley Scott, James Cameroon, Steven Spielberg and John Woo. (Both Jackie Chan and Jet Li who have been doing films by Hong Kong producers have become full time Hollywood actors.)
Producers who have been dubbing Telugu and English films have now turned their attention to Hindi films. These glamour-centred Hindi films are invading Tamilnadu in swarms. Mr. Karunakaran, the owner of Anand Theatre, who has a major role in this, says, “Both dubbed films from Hindi and English films enjoy great popularity among the audience. Audience who like different kind of stories and scenes look for dubbed films. There are also audiences who make a personal request to us to continue to show dubbed films.”
The number of Tamil films released during 2004 was 88. There were 41 dubbed films. Compared to this the dubbed films released during 2005 was much less. But the number of Tamil films was 100. The dubbed films came down from 41 to 26.
K V Rukmangadan, the Secretary of Dubbing Films Producers' Association claims that the reason is the excessive tax charged on dubbing films. However, this Association says that dubbed films released during this year has already touched half a century. Presently the tax structure for Tamil films is 15% whereas it is 50% for dubbed films. Rukmangadan says that efforts are made to appeal to the Government to reduce the tax from 50% to 15%.
Dubbing films are receiving greater attention like never before. The reason for this is Rajini's 'Chandramuki.' 'Chandramuki' broke the business trend of largest collections for the Hindi films. 'Chandramuki' recorded the largest collection from South alone than those Hindi films starring mega stars like Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan released throughout India. Noticing this fact, Rakesh Roshan decided to dub the film 'Krrish' by his son Hrithik Roshan in Tamil and had a gala function to make this announcement in Chennai sometime ago. The market for dubbing films in Tamil that was dominated by the local producers has now become important to producers of Hindi and English films. Frontline producers like Warner Brothers, Twentieth Century Fox, Tristar and Columbia Pictures have appointed people and regularized the sales of dubbed films. The level of advertising is equal to that of Tamil films to take them to the audience.
The English films dubbed in Tamil have a deep penetration into the villages. Film critics also feel that due to this, the enthusiasm for English films is considerably reduced.
Ninety percent of people who seem to appreciate English films don't know English or don't understand much. This lack of understanding of the language makes them appreciate the graphics and action scenes with great admiration. The reason for the scant notice in Tamilnadu for Hollywood films like 'The American Beauty,' 'The Million Dollar Baby' and 'A Beautiful Mind' and great directorial efforts by Martin Scorcese, Steven Soderberg and others is that these films had more involved story and conversation and they lacked action scenes and there were few people who had the understanding capability. That again is the reasons why only such films are appreciated here that have attractions like action and graphics that do not need much of English language.
Beginning from films like 'McKenna's Gold' and 'Ten Commandments' to James Cameroon directed 'Terminator 2 Judgment Day' starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and many others had run in Chennai for more than 100 days. Films like Jackie Chan's 'Armour of the Gods' had matched the collections of Tamil films. Films like 'Cliff Hanger' starring Sylvester Stallone and Keanu Reeves starrer 'Speed' had created record run for more than 150 days. It is to be mentioned that these films were not dubbed but released in English itself.
Hollywood films that are dubbed find it difficult to manage a run for 50 days. Only the number of theatres showing these films was increased, but not the number of days. The only exception was James Cameroon's 'Titanic.' This film with a good blend of romance and production value had created history in Chennai with a run of one full year. The truth is that no other film had a decent run after the advent of dubbing culture. Audience gets frustrated when they watch with understanding films about people from other planets or terrorists being routed by super heroes as the stories are weak. It has come to a stage that audience have lost enthusiasm for Hollywood films dubbed in Tamil and have come to treat them as Hollywood Rama Narayanan's films. A film critic says that it is also a reason why many Hollywood films don't attract theatre-full of audiences and don't have long runs.
The scant runs of many Hollywood films with the exception of 'King Kong' justify this comment. At the same time the dubbing films that have deep penetration into villages have increased the audience and collections also. This is the reason that many Hollywood films continued to be dubbed into Tamil.
For the film 'Mission Impossible III' starring Tom Cruise to be released on 9th June, 45 prints have been taken for the first time. This is a record in the history of dubbing films. One can judge the business implications of dubbed films from the fact that this number is more than a medium budget Tamil film.
The dubbing culture can attain its fullness only when it integrates art films along with glamour, gigantic productions, graphics and action films.
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-07.06.2006
