Her voice reigns supreme
You’ve clapped for her dialogues in the theatre; admired her for her electrifying voice as Short Circuit on radio and hailed her performances in serials like Parichaya, Samparka and Bhagya Bidhata. Meet veteran voice over artiste cum radio jock cum actress Rakhee Dash, who was the recepient of the first Best Dubbing Artiste of the Cine Critic Association.
Rakhee started her journey of art at the age of about five when she used to be trained for singing and Odissi and Chhau dances. But once, while practicing for a stage show, she met an accident at a very young age. ‘‘I could not dance any more and thought my career ended there. Soon, I got married to Bibhu who has been a constant pillar of strength for me,’’ she says. Always involved with Doordarshan and having acted in art films like Prafulla Mohanty’s Maguni Ra Sagada and Bhanga Silata, she once, just for a trial, lend her voice for the second lead in Nagen Barik and Sanjay Pathak’s Sei Jhiati. And from then on Rakhi’s career took a new turn. ‘‘I started dubbing in ’94 and specially after Hara Pattnaik’s Pua Mora Bhola Shankara where I dubbed for Rachana, I’ve never looked back,’’ Rakhee says. Infact, it was her voice over for Archana Joglekar in Stree that won her the Cine Critic award in 1996. Now, she is the most acclaimed dubbing artiste of the Oriya film industry and has been working for many old and new faces like Namrata Thapa in Mu Tate Love Karuchi and Rasika Nagara; Subhashree in Mate Ta Love Helare, Krrisha in Nandini I Love You and so on.
‘‘My ideal is Rita Bisal, the senior dubbing artiste of Oriya industry. She taught me to become the character while dubbing and so I even dress up like the heroine to get into the feel of a particular scene while dubbing. It is a tough job. Specially when handling the lip movements of Bengali girls. Lip-sync is all about timing and rhythm,’’ she explains.
Coming to acting, it was Sudhanshu Sahu who gave her a break in his serial Bhagya Bidhaata wherein she had to act as a drunkard lady. ‘‘It was really difficult as I had to smoke few times for that character,’’ Rakhee laughs away. And with her ever young voice, she has been loved as Short Circuit for 93.5 S FM. ‘‘Nisha Narayan of S FM inspired me to join here though I never thought I could do this and hence had refused earlier offers from the other FM stations,’’ says Rakhee.
A working woman, Rakhi handles the family that includes a six-year-old child with equal ease. Ask her how she does it all and she says, ‘commitment.’ ‘‘A sense of commitment takes you through all odds,’’ she adds.