Will Uppena Makers Take These Comments Seriously?

Makkal Selvan Vijay Sethupathi has earned a great following among the Telugu audience. His dubbed films along with the original Tamil films are watched by many Telugu people. His small yet sparky role in Sye Raa got big attention. Now that he is being part of a Telugu film ‘Uppena’ in full length as a baddie ‘Rayanam’, his fans here are rejoicing. Yet, there seems to be a small disappointment!

The Uppena trailer released yesterday managed to score all good marks and the presence of Vijay Sethupathi dominates all. But the voice of Vijay Sethupathi seems to be something that fans are feeling dissatisfied about. Many were seen leaving comments under the original trailer that it is all excellent but the ‘voice’ given for Vijay Sethupathi’s character is not what they were expecting. They were commenting it like they feel discomfort and disconnection when the flawless appearance of a great actor is mouthing words in a very well known dubbing artist’s voice.

Any Telugu moviegoer can recognize that the voice is of Sai Kumar’s brother Ravi Shankar. The makers might have felt that he should sound more powerful or a lot villainy. But, the Telugu audience who recently watched Vijay Sethupathi in Master and many of his previous Tamil films know how he really sounds and which voice for him sounds natural yet powerful.

The comments were pouring in asking to change the dubbing voice for Vijay Sethupathi, as they feel look naturally powerful and enticing but with this unwanted base-voice villainism is putting the character’s dynamism and dominance down to many levels.

To keep the monotony at bay, our filmmakers experimented with different voices for neighboring state-actors, like Hema Chandra for Aravind Swami in Dhruva and Satya Dev for Suriya in Aakasame Haddu Ra. While these two characters in recent times worked well, Aziz Naser’s dubbing for Madhavan in Nishabdam was a huge dud.

Well, on the flip side, the filmmakers must have gone through a rigorous discussion before zeroing in on Ravi Shankar’s voice for Vijay Sethupathi. Many others opine that few glimpses and short dialogues in a two-minute trailer cannot be criteria to judge a voice if it fits best. The first few dialogues of the character may remind us of the dubbing artiste, but the depth in the role and the greatly talented actor performing may immerse us in the story and we can see and hear only ‘Rayanam’ from then.

For now, the comments from fans and regular audience are coming in a large number asking for a change in his voice. We have to see if Uppena makers take these comments seriously!