Hopping across states

Mahesh Babu hopes to reignite the Telugu-to-Tamil dubbing market

August 08, 2015 06:04 pm | Updated March 29, 2016 02:01 pm IST

A still from Srinmanthudu

A still from Srinmanthudu

Telugu superstar Mahesh Babu was in Chennai last week to promote Selvandhan , the Tamil-dubbed version of his new film Srimanthudu . For the suave and stylish star, it was a homecoming of sorts. The actor is a Chennai boy. He spent his formative years in the city and speaks fluent Tamil.

In a video interview with me, Mahesh, who is turning 40 today (August 9), said: “I grew up in Madras and did my schooling at St Bedes and college at Loyola. Like any other student, I used to visit all the popular haunts like Sathyam and Devi. The city holds a special place in my heart.”

Trade analysts say that among non-Tamil heroes in Chennai city, Mahesh Babu and Aamir Khan are two of the most popular. A spokesperson for Sathyam Cinemas said: “Mahesh Babu’s Telugu films have a phenomenal opening in Chennai and the suburbs. He has a huge reach among youth and family audiences, which has made him a superstar.”

After the huge success of Baahubali — made as a bilingual but seen as a Telugu film by the ordinary Tamil audiences — the floodgates have once again opened. In the early 1970s and 80s, hundreds of Telugu films were dubbed into Tamil, and some of them did well at the box office. Who can forget Sankarabharanam , Jaganmohini , Ithuthanda Police , Udhayam , Geetanjali , Vyjayanthi IPS , Arundhati , Magadheera , Naan Ee and so many other films in the Amman genre?

Mahesh Babu now wants to break into the mainstream market in Tamil Nadu with Selvandhan . He feels there is potential for dubbing his films in Tamil. Earlier, some of his Telugu films like Okkadu and Pokiri , were remade in Tamil by Vijay and met with huge success at the box office. At that time, the trade said that Mahesh’s films have local Tamil “mass” film flavour and will work big time if they are dubbed and released simultaneously with the original.

The star, who has a phenomenal reach worldwide, feels that the way forward is dubbing his films for the Tamil Nadu market and releasing them simultaneously with the Telugu original. He said: “ Baahubali’s success augurs well for the Telugu film industry as a whole. It has opened up new markets. Selvandhan is my first dubbed venture, which will release simultaneously with the original. It is a family drama. It has familiar Tamil faces and I hope it does well. My next film, Brahmotsavam , will also have a Tamil release simultaneously with the Telugu original. I will be dubbing in Tamil in my own voice.”

The good news for Mahesh Babu is that his Chennai promotions have worked big time. The Telugu original Srimanthudu has taken a record opening in Chennai and the suburbs (among the core Telugu-speaking audiences) on the opening day. It has surpassed the first-day figures of Mahesh Babu’s own Dookudu , and has been declared a superhit.

The Tamil version Selvandhan has taken a “decent opening”, as it played mainly in single screens. The multiplexes in Tamil Nadu do not screen dubbed films as a policy. The trade also feels that only historical high-concept fantasy films, ghost movies, or films laden with special effects work big time in the Tamil Nadu dubbing market.

G. Dhananjayan, Tamil film historian, writer and producer, confirms: “Telugu films dubbed into Tamil, if they have to work today, have to be fantasies and historicals, with state-of-the-art special effects, or ghost stories with lots of entertainment content. I feel films with Telugu nativity or family stories will find it tough to connect with our local mass audiences.” The proliferation of television channels showing dubbed content has made it difficult for such films in theatres.

There is a huge buzz around Rudhramadevi, the next Tamil-Telugu bilingual starring Anushka, Allu Arjun and Rana Daggubati and directed by Telugu filmmaker Gunasekhar, with music by Ilaiyaraaja. One of the producers of the film is the leading Tamil film producer and distributor Murali Ramanarayanan, who distributed superhits like Kanchana , Demonte Colony and Baahubali in Tamil Nadu. Murali’s father, the late director and producer Ramanarayanan, was a specialist in dubbing Telugu fantasy movies into Tamil.

Murali Ramanarayanan, who is also distributing Selvandhan, says: “Big-budget special-effects-laden movies work best in the Tamil dubbing market. A film like Baahubali had an advantage that all its principal characters (Sathyaraj, Ramya Krishnan and Nasser) were already Tamil film veterans. Similarly, I’m very optimistic about Rudhramadevi, releasing on September 4, as Anushka is very popular and it has music by Raja sir. Audiences today look at content, richness and local connect. Stars bring in the opening.”

Meanwhile, Mahesh Babu’s promotional tour of Chennai has opened new vistas for Telugu films and augurs well for the dubbing industry. Plans are afoot by other Telugu stars to make whistle-stop tours of Tamil Nadu for promotions. Telugu and Tamil production house PVP Cinema is experimenting big with their forthcoming Dosth , a bilingual in Telugu and Tamil with Nagarjuna, Karthi and Tamannaah in the lead and directed by Vamsi Paidipally. The market for Telugu content is expanding and you can expect more films where Tamil and Telugu stars will come together for that extra push to bring in more footfalls to theatres.

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