Work is play manoj

THANE: A famous Chinese philosopher had once said, "Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life."

The line seems to have inspired many professionals, who have had no qualms in ditching their erstwhile well-paying jobs, be it in the engineering, medical or even the hospitality industry to experiment with their voices on the digital medium. This profession is popularly known as dubbing or voiceover.

Likewise, it has never been a dull moment for voice artist Ganessh Divekar ever since he made his foray in the industry a decade ago lending his voice to several popular Hindi and English movie characters for the local audience. The artist has lent his voice for prominent characters in popular dubbed versions of Bahubali, Spiderman, Disney's Frozen, Game of Thrones to name a few along with prominent TV commercials.

The entry, however, was not easy for Divekar, who had to convince his family. He had to quit his well-paying medical profession and don the hat of a voiceover artist. The dubbing veteran said he was always fascinated by the prospect of lending his voice to characters as a kid when he used to mimic a few cartoon characters, but had to take up medicine following his parent's wish. "I pursued medicine for a decade only to switch over to dubbing much against my family's wishes," he said.

Years later, the artist now does not regret his decision as he has been able to afford a bungalow in Mumbai and a fleet of cars, thanks to his busy schedule as a dubbing artist.

However, for voice artist Sanchit Wartak, who has worked on dubbed versions of Spiderman and a few other movies, it was more of achieving his dream of doing something different that helped him land up in this arena. Wartak was into directing serials and films and a chance encounter to dub a toon series drew him towards this profession. "I feel a sense of satisfaction at the end of the day and this keeps me rooted to this profession," he said.

Veteran film, television actor and voice artist Uday Sabnis from Thane, who has mentored several budding talents in the industry, said he himself has had an accidental entry into this profession. "I was on my way to become a chartered accountant, but somewhere in the early stages of my career I found my calling in this field when I dubbed for the character Bageera in the cartoon series Jungle Book. People around me were surprised to know that I wanted to enter this arena leaving behind a supposedly monetarily stable career in finance," he said.

Unfortunately, the art has to be honed individually because there are no institutes that take up education on this and many who have now established a name for themselves have come up on their own.

"I used to practice for hours in my initial days as you have to get the diction correct and also be able to emote perfectly. My mentors have ensured that I trained for hours even for a 15-minute shot and the hard work in those initial days has now paid off,said TV actor Pari Telang, who has also ventured into this profession.

No wonder stalwarts like Amitabh Bachchan have been lured to attempt it as he took time off his busy schedule last year and lent his voice to the Hindi translation of filmmaker Steven Spielberg's The Big Friendly Giant while Shahrukh Khan also gave his voice to the main character to the Hindi version of Mr Incredible. Hollywood also has an array of stars, including Robin Williams, who lent his voice for the hyperactive Genie in the 1990's Disney's Alladin.