The curious case of dubbed films

A few big-ticket Tamil films are released simultaneously in Telugu, while others have to wait. Here’s why

AS still from 'Enakkul Oruvan'

When a big ticket Tamil film is in the offing, it generates some buzz in the Telugu industry. Some like Mani Ratnam’s Ok Kanmani ( Ok Bangaram ), Rajinikanth-starrer Lingaa , Shankar’s I, Kamal Haasan-starrer Uttama Villain and Suriya’s forthcoming Masss ( Rakshasudu ) find a simultaneous release in Tamil and Telugu. Others like Arrambam , Jilla and Yennai Arindhaal release in Telugu months or even a year after the original.

Vijay and Mohanlal-starrer Jilla released in Tamil in January 2014 and its dubbed version is slated for release soon in Telugu. Director Gautam Menon’s Yennai Arindhaal starring Ajith, Trisha and Anushka Shetty, which released this January in Tamil, is slated to release on May 22 in Telugu as Yenta Vaadu Gaani . The reasons for such delays are varied. In some cases, the producer of the original version prefers to sell the dubbing rights at a higher price if the film becomes a hit. In other cases, production houses in Hyderabad closely watch a film that has potential for a remake in Telugu. If the original is a hit, the price for the rights of remake or dubbing goes up accordingly. A few filmmakers strike an early deal and opt for a simultaneous release of the original and dubbed version.

Thamatam Kumar Reddy of Sri Obuleshwara Productions, who will be releasing

Jilla in Telugu, says the delay in Telugu version was due to production houses vying to remake the film. “Several names were floated, from Ram Charan to Balakrishna and Venkatesh to take up the roles of Vijay and Mohanlal. But a viable combination didn’t work out and then I got the remake rights,” he says. The Tamil version had a running time of 182 minutes. Reddy says the Telugu audience will get a trimmed version, apart from the addition of a few scenes featuring Brahmanandam.

Films like

Jilla and Arrambam (released in Telugu as Aata Arambam ) fall into the mainstream commercial format with potential to appeal to both Tamil and Telugu audience. Two of Siddharth’s films — Jigarthanda and Kaaviya Thalaivan — were deeply rooted in Tamil settings and the release of their dubbed versions is a question mark. Another Siddharth-starrer Enakkul Oruvan ( Naalo Okkadu in Telugu), a remake of the Kannada film Lucia , released recently. Kalpana Koneru, producer of Naalo Okkadu , says, “I liked the concept and felt the Telugu audience should get to watch the film. The normal practice is to think of the viability of a project and then invest in it. In this case, I went ahead because of the quality of the film.”

Kalpana also released the dubbed version of the Tamil film Pisachi . Both Naalo Okkadu and Pisachi released a short while after the Tamil versions. “For niche films, we wait to see how they fare at the box office. Pisachi was a well-made film that was accepted. So we dubbed it and got a good response. Naalo Okkadu did well in centres like Vijayawada and Vizag,” she adds. Now, Kalpana is working on the dubbing of Tamilzhukku En Ondrai Azhuttavum (Press 1 for Tamil), featuring Nakul, Dinesh and Bindu Madhavi, which opened to favourable reviews.

Meanwhile, there’s also an audience that wants to see films in their original languages, more so if they are screened with subtitles. The last few years have seen a string of Malayalam, Tamil and occasionally Marathi films being screened in multiplexes. For instance, Malayalam films like

Bangalore Days and

100 Days of Summer . But a few producers do not release the original until the dubbed/remade film is ready to hit the screens.

Yennai Arindhaal and

Jilla are examples.

As director Gautam Menon puts it, “The story of Yennai Arindhaal is set in Chennai. But producer A.M. Ratnam was confident that it will work in Telugu and has invested time and money in the dubbed version. I have no qualms. Speaking from my point of view, I prefer bilinguals to dubbed films.” His previous films Yeto Vellipoyindi Manasu and Ye Maya Chesave were bilinguals.

In an industry driven by economics, at times, older films are unearthed and dubbed to cash in on an actor’s popularity. A slew of films featuring Dhanush after Raghuvaran B. Tech fall into this category.