SonyLIV dubs Hindi original ‘Tanaav’ into southern languages

SonyLIV, the video streaming platform owned by Sony Pictures Networks India, has dubbed its Hindi language original Tanaav into Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada. The action thriller directed by Sudhir Mishra and Sachin Krishn, is created and produced by Applause Entertainment and stars Manav Vij, Arbaaz Khan and Danish Husain.

Video streaming platforms are fast recognising the diversity of India as a nation and the importance of reaching out to Indians in their languages. Services, both local and foreign, are upping their dubbing game for marquee content.

Amazon Prime Video had earlier onboarded Arjun Kapoor and Rajkummar Rao to dub for superhero series The Boys 2. Tamil movie industry star Vijay Sethupathi also lent his voice to their animation film Dhira.

After Netflix showcased international originals like Extraction, A Suitable Boy and The Jungle Book dubbed in Indian languages, SonyLIV dubbed its popular original Scam 1992-The Harshad Mehta Story into Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. Disney+ Hotstar had released Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Kannada and Malayalam versions of its web series Aarya earlier.

Industry experts say the dubbing game is important to reach out to tier two and tier three towns that services have penetrated into during the Covid-19 pandemic with even niche originals gaining popularity.

Media industry experts said the extension of web show experiences from an audio perspective beyond subtitles was long overdue. Plus, the strategy takes inspiration from the popular Hollywood studio move of getting top Bollywood stars to dub for foreign flicks.

Tiger Shroff had dubbed for Tom Holland in the Hindi version of Spider-Man: Homecoming while Varun Dhawan voiced Marvel’s superhero movie Captain America: Civil War.