Voice artist R Shankar, who has been on the path of lending his voice to some great projects, irrespective of the languages, speaks to The Pioneer about his journey, lending his voice to Big B and the challenge of lending his voice in the Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Tejal Sinha
What started off as an inclination back in his childhood, today R. Shankar has been a dubbing and voice artist for over 13 years now. Having his voice over multiple languages, he has recently lent his voice to the box-office hit Deadpool and Wolverine. Not just this, he has also been the voice of the Proximous character in the Kingdom of the Planets of the Apes.
“I began dubbing as a voice artist in 2010,” shares the artist, who had also lent his voice to Sylvester Stallone in Samaritan, John Cena in Ricky Stanicky, as well as Jackpot and Dave Bautista in My Spy. “I began working as the voice behind the supporting characters and now here I am doing lead characters. I have lent my voice to around 750 to 800 movies in all languages.”
Over the years, he has found his inspiration in Sai Kumar, Ravishankar, Shrinvas Murthy and Hyderabad’s legend, RCM Raju. However, Big B’s voice, he says, has been a benchmark that has inspired him a lot.
After finding his inspiration in the voice of Big B, he did get the opportunity to even be his voice in films like Ganapath and Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy. What an honour!
As we went ahead in this chat, he recalls, “It was a nice experience working in Deadpool and Wolverine because this was a big opportunity for me. The dubbing director, had supported me a lot. Voicing has been one of the most important aspects of every movie. Every movie has voice tests; collecting voice samples and pick the ones that better suit the character.” However, he shares that dubbing for Hollywood movies is a bit challenging because they are very conscious. “We cannot afford to leave out the beauty of the character. We cannot leave out what the expressions of the characters should be. As a voice artist, our main focus needs to always be on connecting with regional audiences.”
Having also lent his voice to Prabhas-starrer Salaar and Yash-starrer KGF and sharing his feelings on the films’ success from his point of view, he shares, “It’s pleasing. However, if a film is going to do well or not, as a voice artist, we have to do our work. If, commercially, the film is doing well, then what else can we ask for? Our hard work is recognised by other people; they’ll get to know about you and also know about how we can work on any of the projects, not confined to a particular genre.”
Speaking of his most challenging project, beyond a doubt, it was the Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. Voicing the Proximous character, he says, “I really enjoyed it. Working on different projects, brings a whole new learning experience. This project was certainly different from the previous ones because it was the first time that I was dubbing for an ape. The film is made of motions that capture a kind of technology. With this project, I was really surprised because they came up with detailed expressions. We had to coordinate and be very careful because every minute the expressions were being changed.”
As we head towards the end of the chat, with great enthusiasm, Shankar gushes, “The job of a voice artist is in itself a tough job, because it is not your behaviour or expressions. We need to dub according to the dubbing director, take inputs and deliver things accordingly. Now, I am glad that the voice artists have also been getting their due credit.”
