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Hrithik-Ash go south

by: Tushar Joshi
- mid-day.com

Ashutosh Gowariker is pulling out all the stops to ensure that Jodhaa Akbar, starring Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai, gets the maximum eyeballs. A source close to the project reveals the director will be dubbing the film in Tamil and Telugu.

“Ashutosh wanted the film to reach a wide audience. He wanted to showcase it to the non-Hindi speaking audience as well. At present, he’s busy auditioning voices who will dub for Hrithik and Ash.”

Universal story

Ashutosh who’s busy at ND Studios in Karjat shooting for a song reveals, “The decision to dub Jodhaa Akbar in Tamil and Telugu was very natural. I wanted to break the language barrier and tell this story to everyone. There is a huge non-Hindi speaking audience that watches movies and the dubbed versions will cater to those.”

This isn’t the first movie Gowariker has dubbed in south languages. “I dubbed Swades as well and it worked for me. I think people down south will relate to the story like anyone else. It’s a historical, but there’s a love story at the heart of it.”

Help at hand

Helping him audition people for Hrithik’s and Ash’s voices is coordinator Mona Shetty. “She has been very helpful and is making the process easy for me. I will be shortlisting the candidates in a while.”

When asked what qualities is he looking for the in the voices he adds, “Well, I am obviously looking for voices that match Hrithik and Ash as close as possible. There has to be a certain baritone in the voice which does justice to the characters of Jodhaa and Akbar.”

Indicating that he won’t be changing some of the Urdu words in the original he adds, “Words like Jalaluddin or Shahenhshah will be retained. The translation will be as close to Urdu as possible.”

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