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'What's
required on radio are interesting capsules that could be built around each station's
property' |
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| Posted
on 15 February 2008 | We
have all wondered about the voices that infuse life into loving animated characters,
sell us products in our drawing rooms and talk to us in their friendly voices
on FM radio. These are the invisible voice over artists we hear every day; the
unknown faces of the broadcasting industry. One
of the premium voice talents in the industry, Darrpan Mehta in conversation
with Nasrin Sultana, sheds light on the voice and dubbing industry. Mehta
heads Sugar Mediaz Private Limited, a broadcast content and talent solutions company
and is founder director of The Voice School. A biker by passion, he is the anchor
of Radio City Flashback and City Talkies on Radio City. He
has lent has voice for Sony, Zee, Sahara One, Discovery, and for a host of televised
events like the Filmfare Awards, Indian Idol , Amul Star Voice of India, Sa Re
Ga Ma Challenge and Indian Telly Awards.
Excerpts
from a conversation -
With
a huge growth in the FM sector, do you see any improvement in the language skills
and voice modulation among the current crop of RJs?
I do not see any
improvement. RJs are academically challenged. They just talk but are yet to become
intelligent speakers. They also lack in language skills. What they do not understand
is that humour is different from slapstick. Many of them are not fluent in Hindi;
they do a word-to-word translation from English to Hindi. For instance, they say,
"Hum
aapke ke leye gaana khelne wala hain (we are going to play a song for you)." There's
consensus in the industry that the FM content is cluttered. What could work as
a clutter breaker?
I think the radio future lies in skits, which are two
or three minutes long. I am not talking about the Hawa Mahal kind of skits
that used to air on Vividh Bharati. Now is the time when everyone opts for fast
food. What's required are interesting stories or capsules that could be built
around each station's own property.
The
dubbed content market has seen a boost with many upcoming channels entirely dependent
on it. How do you see it?
I
am the voice of Sahara One Media and Entertainment’s upcoming dubbed content
channel Firangi. Most of the new general entertainment channels (GEC) have dubbed
content. It has grown over the years, while earlier it was virtually non-existent.
Now it is on the threshold of becoming a mega industry in its own right. On
the other hand, it is a dichotomy actually. If you view it from an entrepreneur’s
point of view, it is a big business opportunity for a huge market that's coming
up. We have access to a market that is booming. But as an artist, I feel that
on the content side, there has been a downfall. Since the production houses involved
in dubbing always go in for cost cutting, they do not place a high value on a
premium artist. They would rather compromise on the voice quality. Even
for a theatrical release, the dubbing production houses use a premium voice but
for the home video and satellite screening, a low cost dubbing artist is used
to cut costs. All the films are re-dubbed for TV release and the home video release.
Does
content and sensuality of the language suffer in the process of dubbing?
A
joke in English cannot be translated. What is difficult is translating the story
line into our language. For example, English humour is different from American
humour and Indian humuor. Earlier, there used to be word to word translations,
which really took its toll on the quality of the content. But now the trend is
to trans-create, so that we can do justice to the ethos of the language, culture
and sensibility. The way Pankaj Kapur trans-created Mind your language
into Jabaan Sambhal Ke is commendable. | | |
What
are the costs involved in dubbing?
It is a wonderful low cost model. For
example, acquiring a show from various parts of the world and putting it up as
dubbed content is very cheap as against producing an entire show. The costs of
producing a show can run into several hundred thousands, but a half hour of dubbed
content will cost around Rs 50 to 60,000.
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'People
always look down upon dubbed content and the dubbing artist. It is only if people
like Shah Rukh Khan dub for Hum Hain Lajawaab, that it makes headlines' |
There
are kids' channels and now GECs which have been synergizing dubbed content and
building it as a strong proposition. But do you think dubbing artists are paid
their due?
People always look down upon dubbed content and the dubbing
artist. It is only if people like Shah Rukh Khan dub for Hum Hain Lajawaab,
that it makes headlines. Dubbing
is to voicing, what theatre is to acting. Dubbing is a tough thing. What we do
is, an English audio called the pilot track plays on the head phone of the artist,
the dubbing artist's voice plays on the second track in the headphone, then there
is a script in front of the artist. Above all, I have to be with the character
but not lead him or follow him. Besides everything, the artist has to emote the
characters that he is rendering his voice for. We have to do natural reflexes.
Behind the scenes, it is a challenging and a creative thing to do. What
is the most difficult task in dubbing?
For a dubbing artist, it is a
difficult task to match the lip sync of the characters, who are speaking some
other language. Whatever number of words are spoken in a minute, it is not necessary
to have the same number of words in the translated language. There, we have to
match the timing as well the lip sync. Is
it tougher to dub south Indian languages into Hindi than dubbing English into
Hindi?
It is always a tough job to dub from South Indian languages to
Hindi than English to Hindi because South Indian languages are spoken very fast.
It is difficult to lip sync the South Indian languages. Unlike
singers, do voice over artists and dubbing artists have any licensing rights?
Not really. The voice over artist and dubbing artist community is very
unorganized and scattered. Only the premium voice over artist in India get licensing
rights for their voice. If
an artist gives his voice for any show in India, the broadcaster can use the voice
any number of times. But it is not the same in other countries. Even the Copyright
Act of India, 1952, guarantees copyright to any individual voice artist. Only
in the advertising industry does the voice artist get royalty each time the voice
is used, but in the case of dubbing, it is not only an one time payment to the
dubbing artist. Internationally,
a dubbing artist might do one film per year but he can sustain himself the entire
year with the kind of royalty that he gets, based on the regulations and the kind
of contract that he signs. Have
you tried seeking licensing rights from broadcasters?
For ads yes, but
for promos they cannot and do not use the same voice for a TV ad and a radio ad,
as per regulations. In ads, big time artists are getting their dues these days.
Which
are the ventures that Sugar Mediaz is involved with?
Sugar Mediaz Private
Limited is a broadcast content and talent solutions company incorporated in 2004.
It has three divisions which work in tandem to propel the company’s objective
of ensuring the best talent training platform and developing innovative and fresh
content for the broadcast industry. We produce content catering to the needs of
the radio/ television promotion and corporate communication industry. Our
list of clients includes Mudra Communications, O & M, Network Advertising,
JWT, Zee Telefilms, Star Television, Sony Entertainment television, Hum FM Dubai.
What
about your voice training school?
The Voice School is a training facility
for any kind of voice training in radio talent, voice over talent, corporate voice
training or public speaking and personality grooming skills. We
have our own recording studios. We have an archive of 700 radio commercials. Scores
of aspiring voice professionals are today working with some of the leading names
in the broadcast industry in India and abroad like Big FM, Radio City, Hum FM,
Dubai, City FM, Dubai, Aawaz FM, Dubai, Radio 4 Dubai. | 
