One of the most recognizable voices in Bollywood, Sharad Kelkar recently opened up about dubbing for South Indian films and being recognised as Prabhas’ voice in South Indian movies dubbed in Hindi. The actor started lending his voice to Prabhas in Baahubali, and his latest project with the Telugu star was Prashanth Neel’s Salaar.
“I used to stammer since childhood. I used to stammer till I started acting. I never dreamt of becoming an actor, leave alone being a voice actor,” says Sharad when he’s reminded of how his voice has a different fan following after he dubbed for Prabhas’ characters in Baahubali films and Salaar. He also dubbed for Prabhas in the Hindi version of Adipurush.
About dubbing for South Indian films, Sharad Kelkar said, “In the south, I haven’t done much work in a very long time. I haven’t dubbed Hollywood films in a very long time, either. But the recognition I got for Prabhas’ films was big. I don’t think it has happened with anyone in the voicing industry. People have now started noticing the voice-over artistes, like people recognised Shreyas (Talpade) in Pushpa and Sachin Gole for Yash in KGF. So, I think after Baahubali, it is no more true that you don’t know the person who has dubbed, whose voice it is.”
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Sharad credits Baahubali for bringing in the change and wants filmmakers to start mentioning voice actors in end credits and movie posters. He says, “I would say that Baahubali brought about that change in the industry, and people started recognising and respecting the voice actors also. People knew me, but they also noticed that I am a voice actor. They started recognising my voice being used to dub these films, and other actors also started getting recognition. For that, I am very happy. You know, in Hollywood if you see any animation film, the headlines are that so and so actor has dubbed for so and so character. In India also, we should have that. I don’t know why it’s not happening yet. Maybe they don’t want to give voice actors their due, but they should.”
When asked how he overcame stammering, Sharad Kelkar shared, “When you stammer, nobody notices the voice. But once I overcame that issue, I started getting work. I realised that my breathing pattern was not correct that’s why I used to stammer. A lot of children and their parents ask me how I managed to overcome stammering, and I say this was my issue. It is like if I ask you to sprint for 100 meters and immediately say a few lines, you can’t do it because your breathing is not in your control. You’ll be breathing heavily. It was like that for me. Once I corrected my breathing, I stopped stammering. Then I started observing other actors as to how they speak so fluently and worked towards it. Once my stammering stopped, people started noticing my voice.”
“When it came to dubbing, I realised that I didn’t know the craft of dubbing. As an actor, there are times you can enhance your scene in dubbing. And, if you dub badly, you can ruin the scene too. So I went to Mona Shetty to learn dubbing, she said that I’ve got a good voice, but I’ll need to learn how to dub. And from there my dubbing journey started. I started with very small projects, and then Baahubali came. Then there was no looking back. Work kept flowing in,” he added.
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Sharad Kelkar’s next project as a voice actor is Disney Plus Hotstar’s animated series The Legend Of Hanuman, where he has voiced the character of Ravana. The actor says he took up the show based on how it was written.
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“I choose the show, seeing how it is written. It is all in the writing. Writing is such a difficult craft. I feel in India we should have writers’ names come in front, written in bold letters. That’s my big request to producers. Writers should get their dues. Sharad Devarajan and Jeevan Kang have written the show beautifully. When I do mythology stories, my first apprehension goes away if the writing is good. We first voice acted, and then the animation was created, so I got the liberty to explore Ravan. I wanted to break the cliche. I wanted people to feel some fascination for Ravan. I wanted viewers to be curious about how Ravan was, his interpersonal relationships with his family and his enemy. So, it is a great experience for an actor to dub for certain characters,” concluded Sharad.
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