Eijaz Khan shares his experience of giving a Hindi voiceover for Arjun Sarja in the film 'Leo'

Actor Eijaz Khan, who was recently seen in the hit film "Jawan" and web series "City of Dreams" on Hotstar, has done the Hindi voiceover for South superstar Arjun Sarja in the film "Leo" which released this Friday. Thalapathy Vijay plays the lead in the film. Sharing his experience of dubbing for the film, Eijaz says, "Have done the Hindi voice-over for Arjun Sarja in Leo. I think the most amazing thing about dubbing is to choose the right actor to give a voiceover. The casting director generally looks for similarities in the face, the physicality and the age group. So, I find the process very fascinating. You can go with more or less your natural tone. When I saw how Arjun Sarja looks in the film Leo, I thought it was very close to how I was looking. We are in the same age bracket as well, so I thought I could do justice to it and was very excited to give my voice to him.”

Eijaz adds, "While I was dubbing for Arjun Sarja, I kept in mind the fact that when you give voice-over for any scene, you have to understand the intensity of the scene and what the director is trying to convey. The choice of inflexion has to be right. This is basically what I kept in mind. A lot of credit also goes to my amazing dubbing director, Abul. He is my friend, philosopher and guiding light for dubbing. He is the only person I have dubbed with, and it's a lot of fun doing voiceovers with him. Arjun Sarja’s character in the film is from a Catholic background, so we tried to keep the Mumbai dialect a bit, but we also kept in mind that people across the country should understand. The overall experience was really satisfactory. I really had fun doing this. Another thing I had to keep in mind when you try to use the Mumbaiya language is that it is very easy to shift into a Munna Bhai zone. "Aree apun tereko aisa bola na" and be like Sanjay Dutt. So, I had to make sure that I did not end up sounding like him. That was one fun challenge in this assignment.”

Talking about the other challenges in dubbing, Eijaz shares, "All the challenges while dubbing are very different. You really have to take care of your voice. You can't have cold drinks, you can't have ice creams if I am dubbing the next day. I can't have anything sour, I can't have something very late at night and go to bed late. I will make sure I gargle with a little bit of warm water. Your voice box is also like a muscle that needs to be exercised regularly. I know I should be doing humming practices and voice modulation practices. But I still haven't got into the protocol of that yet. I will do it eventually when I start dubbing more professionally. I cannot even eat very spicy food a couple of days before dubbing. I have to make sure that I stay away from people who are sick. Unfortunately, it is very easy to get a cold or a cough when you are surrounded by a lot of people, so I stay away from the crowd. I stay away from congested places that could lead to some kind of infection because the dubbing studio is booked, the dubbing director is booked, and if you go with a bad voice, very little can be done, and then you are really forcing yourself to say the right words in the right tone, and then it shows in your work. You also need a proper good night's rest before your dubbing. The next day, you are sharp; the next day, you are very alert, and you can add a little more of your characters' elements to the scene. While dubbing, I have some different protocols I try to keep some candy with me. You can't really stay close to the mic when you say words like Ba, Pa, or anything with b or p. So you have to take care, and you have to make sure that you keep less of your voice but still have that impact in your voice.”

Ejaz also shares that there are different ways when you are dubbing for various languages. He says, "There are more challenges while dubbing for non-Hindi films. I think Tamil for me, is easiest to dub because the language, the way the language is spoken, can be equalized with a little bit of Hindi. In Telugu, it's a little less; in Malayalam, it's a little more. So, in Malayalam, they use a lot of words to say a similar thing that would take fewer words in Hindi. In Telugu, they probably use slightly fewer words to say more, slightly fewer words to say the same thing that in Hindi we use more. So, in Telugu, what happens is that the pauses come at very different places, and because of the pauses, the intention and the meaning of the scene can change. So you really have to take care. In Malayalam, it's very difficult. I have almost tried to dub for 1 Malayalam film, but that will happen in due course of time. Tamil is easy for me. I ended up dubbing for Ajith Kumar sir's voice in  Thunivu. And I have done Viswasam also for him. I think most of the South actors are brilliant. They make your job very easy. The acting is already done. You just have to make sure that you match up to their energy and that you match up to the fun element of dubbing in a different language. As in it should be entertaining, it should add a little more to the scene then take away from the scene.”