Rani Mukerji made her film debut with Raja Ki Aayegi Baraat, but it wasn’t until Kuch Kuch Hota Hai that she became popular among the masses. Around the same time, Rani also appeared in Aamir Khan-starrer Ghulam, in which she had a small role, but gained some attention through the song ‘Ae Kya Bolti Tu’. Ghulam was released just a few months before Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, and the filmmakers behind it decided to get a dubbing artist for Rani, as they were not convinced if her real voice would work for the film. In a recent interview, Rani recalled that incident and said that Aamir Khan was made the “bad cop” in the entire episode.
“It wasn’t a very normal-sounding voice. It’s my voice, and it’s different, but I think at that time, it was just the fact that they were taking this big bet on a newcomer with Aamir Khan, who is already an established actor, and they were going… that’s what Vikram (Bhatt, director) explained, that they were going with just the chatter that was happening in the edit rooms. ‘Yeh ladki ki awaz thodi alag hai (This girl has a different voice)’,” she recalled in a chat with Galatta India.
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Rani said that it was a common practice in those days for female actors to be dubbed over by others, because several women from the south were working in Hindi movies, and they did not have a strong command over the language. “Especially Sridevi ji. For many years of her life, her voice was dubbed, and she was one of my favourite actresses. So, I remember Aamir telling me, ‘Rani, you know your favourite actress is Sridevi, her voice was dubbed in so many films. It doesn’t matter. We have to do what’s best for our film’. He was made to become the bad cop at that point of time,” she said, and added that it was a collective decision made by the makers. “But I don’t think they put very much thought to it. They just wanted to play it safe.”
Rani also acknowledged the role of Karan Johar in her career, as he was the first filmmaker who decided to retain her original voice and not dub over it. When Karan learned that Rani’s voice was being dubbed by someone else, he was puzzled. “I said maybe they don’t like my voice. And he said I love your voice, you will dub for my movie. I am very glad that Karan being Karan took that call. Because if even in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai my voice would be dubbed, then it would get very difficult to convince other people to have my voice back,” she said.
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