GANDHINAGAR: With a group setting up a chamber of commerce for dubbed films, the dubbing debate has returned to haunt the Kannada film industry again.
Producer Krishnegowda has registered the 13-member body under the Societies Act, and calls it the Karnataka Dubbing Chalanachitra Chamber of Commerce.
He told City Express he was being threatened with violence by vested interests in the film industry.
“I hear some people are planning to punish me because I am in favour of dubbing,” he told City Express. He says he knows who they are.
Krishnegowda is not lodging a police complaint because Munirathna, President of the Producers’ Association, has advised him against it.
“Munirathna said it was better to resolve the matter among ourselves and not take it to the police. He has called a meeting on Wednesday,” Krishnegowda said.
The dubbing chamber will be come under the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC) and deal with films dubbed into Kannada, while the KFCC will oversee original and remake films, he said.
Dubbing films just change the dialogue track, while remake films hire a new cast and crew and shoot again.
“A couple of other producers and I had filed a case in the High Court, which we won,” he said. “Even the Competition Commission of India has questioned the KFCC about why they don’t allow dubbing, and even fined them.”
The new body’s aim is to dub blockbuster films that the Kannada industry cannot afford to make.
“We want to look at huge-budget films like Magadheera, Avatar and Titanic. But producers can also choose to dub other films,” he said.
Not in their hands anymore
Filmmaker and former journalist Prakash Belawadi believes the Kannada film industry has little say in the dubbing debate.
“Those against dubbing have made the mistake of talking threateningly, so no matter what they say, it seems like they are protecting turf, regardless of the market,” he told City Express.
Their argument that film workers will suffer if dubbing is accepted reflects a trade-union approach, according to Belawadi. “While the other side needs to understand the humanitarian aspect, the cultural perspective must be considered, too,” he said.
Earlier, when you talked about a German, French, Cuban, Argentinian or Spanish film, you referred more to a culture than to a language. “So an Argentinian film is also in Spanish, but it represents a different culture,” he said.
“Interestingly, when the talkies came in, the two big Fascist leaders, Hitler and Mussolini, refused to allow the screening of American films unless they were dubbed in German and Italian respectively,” Belawadi, who teaches theatre and film, said.
He believes if children from Kannada families “can access the world only through Kannada, then it should be made available to them.” To deprive them of the best cinema of the world, and allowing Kannada dubbing only for Discovery and Cartoon Network, is really unfair, he contended.
“They can argue that Kannada cinema will have to compete with really big budget films, but even here they don’t have a special case. How is it different from the problems of the Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand or Telangana film industries?” he said.
A better approach is to ask for more tax subsidies or a few hundred theatres to be set aside for Kannada films, he suggested.
“They should bring the best of world cinema, and screen them with Kannada subtitles,” Belawadi said.
He advised the warring parties to arrive at a consensus. “But if they do go to the Supreme Court — and I urge them to consider this very carefully — and dubbing comes through, there will be huge ramifications for TV,” he said.
He predicts TV shows from other countries will have audiences hooked, like in the days of Mahabharata and Ramayana.
‘Learn from parallel movies’
Film critic N Manu Chakravarthy is of the opinion that the dubbing debate should not be taken to the Supreme Court. “Cultural questions are not to be decided by courts,” he said. “All of us watch dubbed cinema or films with subtitles — Marathi, Iranian and Latin American.”
He said mainstream Kannada cinema should stop viewing parallel cinema as an enemy. “It has a lot to learn. I don’t mean imitation, but creative borrowing. The crisis is that there is no space for this kind of cinema — parallel, serious or whatever you call it — in Karnataka.”
According to him, not more than three films, or 2 per cent of the 150 Kannada films produced a year, are box-office grossers. “There should be two-way traffic on the bridge of Kannada cinema. Instead, the gulf is widening, and if it continues, the crisis will never end,” he said.