Reel trend: Ranveer is Deadpool, Rana is Thanos

The rising popularity of Hollywood franchise films among the Indian movie-goer is seeing film distributors approach top actors to lend their voices for the Indian language versions.

A sign that their strategy is working? On Monday, Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh announced on social media that he will be the voice of Marvel superhero Deadpool in the Hindi version of the film’s sequel. Ryan Reynolds plays the lead in the original. Within minutes of the Hindi trailer being posted online, both the actor and the film became the top trends on the Internet.

Singh is not the first actor to have dubbed for a popular film. Most recently, Baahubali actor Rana Daggubati lent his voice to the character Thanos in the Telugu version of the latest Avengers movie. Varun Dhawan dubbed for Captain America: Civil War, Tiger Shroff was the voice of Spiderman in the Hindi version of SpiderMan: Homecoming, Nana Patekar, Priyanka Chopra and Irrfan Khan dubbed for various characters in The Jungle Book, Shah Rukh Khan was Mr Lajawaab in the Hindi version of Pixar’s The Incredibles, Akshay Kumar was the baby elephant in the animated film Jumbo, Arshad Warsi dubbed for Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge, and Arjun Kapoor was Buck in the Hindi version of Ice Age: Collision Course.

For Singh, dubbing for Deadpool was his “big fan boy moment”. “I am a big fan of the first Deadpool movie. I saw it and I loved it,” he said.

“He is one of my favourite superheroes, a very unique character and I love his brand of humour,” said Singh, and added, “So, I thought it would be a cool and fun thing to lend my voice to the character.”

“As actors, we don’t get this much liberty to have such irreverent fun. Because many jokes and one-liners are culture specific to America, a lot of them needed to be translated to resonate with Indian sensibilities,” he said.

Hollywood studios have also realised the market for dubbed films in India has grown. It helps that they bring an Indian touch to the character. Vijay Singh, CEO Fox Star Studios, which is distributing Deadpool 2, said, “Like Deadpool, Ranveer is known for his smart, witty , irreverent humor... he epitomises the attitude of Deadpool, and is a powerhouse of an actor. Also Ranveer is a household name in the heartland markets and we wanted to widen the appeal of Deadpool in these markets.”

Ranveer said dubbing for the character was a challenge as it helped him “explore my creativity and be a voice artiste for a cult character”. He added, “I have had my share of experience as a voice artiste for ads when I used to be an assistant director before I became an actor. I thought lending my voice to a film would be a cool and fun experience.”

Daggubati said he too is a fan of superheroes such as Iron Man and Black Panther and was “lucky” to have dubbed for Thanos “The dubbing process is quite difficult as you are trying to match the lip sync of English words and trying to fit the Telugu words in the scene.”

Dhawan said dubbing for Captain America was a different experience. “Captain America is a mature and balanced leader. This is something that I am not. So, that made it all the more challenging for me.”

Meanwhile, to Reynolds and Singh won over the Internet on Monday while promoting the film. Singh posted a tweet saying, “Astonishing how effectively I’ve managed to out-crass my Canadian counterpart @VancityReynolds. Never realised how fulfilling & rewarding foul Hindi language can be! #Deadpool2Hindi”. Reynolds had an equally witty response: “Well if I tried to curse in Hindi, pretty sure there would be an international incident.”

The film which will release on May 18.