When Arjun Kapoor says that being an actor doesn’t just mean facing the camera, he’s not being clichéd. This actor really means it. Kapoor lends his voice to the Hindi version of upcoming Hollywood animated film, Ice Age: Collision Course . It’s yet another attempt to hone his skills, including voice acting, to become a better artiste.
It all started when production and distribution company Fox Star Studios showed the actor the film, and asked him to pick the role he’d like to dub for. Kapoor, however, didn’t pick the main protagonists: Manny the mammoth, Sid the sloth and Diego the saber-tooth tiger.
Surprisingly, Kapoor chose the role of a smaller character: Buck the weasel. “He’s a mad, really hyperactive character,” says the star of films like Ishaqzaade and Ki & Ka . “It was a throwback to old-school Hindi comedians for me.”
The one-eyed nutty weasel Buck may have lesser screen time, but he’s a pivotal character nonetheless. As part of dubbing for Ice Age , Kapoor also had to mimic Bollywood actors, including Anil Kapoor, Arshad Warsi, and Sanjay Dutt. “I also speak in various accents, including Hyderabadi, Punjabi and Marathi,” he says. In fact, this was the first time Kapoor did celebrity impressions. “I didn’t realise I had such an armoury of voices within me,” he says.
“I know they say every actor can imitate a few people, but I didn’t know I could pull it off. Only when I was put in the spot did I realise I didn’t sound bad at all.”
Growing up, Kapoor has been quite fascinated with animation films, including, of course, the Ice Age franchise. With the exception of the last film, Ice Age: Continental Drift , he’s watched all of them. “It wasn’t necessary for my understanding of Buck that I watch Continental Drift .”
Even though he’s dubbing one, the actor has never actually watched a Hollywood film in an Indian language. Dubbed films, after all, target a different section of the audience, and it is for that reason that some script changes were done when adapting Ice Age to Hindi. “I’ll just say that it’s commercialised in the best way possible.” Naturally, then the impressions and jokes would be a bonus.
While the dialogues were set in stone, Arjun says he was still provided with a lot of freedom in delivery. “I could improvise within the set parameters.” And the whole process took him all of two days.
“It’s important for an actor to find his positives, and I think I’ve found one of mine by doing this.” This doesn’t, of course, get him any closer to Hollywood. “Perhaps, if I had dubbed for the English version?”
Currently, the actor is working on an adaptation of Chetan Bhagat’s novel Half Girlfriend . This is the second time the actor is dabbling in the popular Indian author’s works. He’d previously starred in 2 States , another of Bhagat’s books.
“I joke about it too,” says Kapoor. “But this came about organically. Mohit Suri wanted me. I think I suit Chetan’s protagonists.” The film will take a while to hit the big screen, but for the moment, Kapoor is excited about watching a dubbed Hollywood film for the first time, one that he’s lent his voice to.
The actor didn’t pick the main protagonists to lend his voice to. He chose the role
of Buck the weasel
