As the countdown for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey begins, the craze for the highly anticipated film is growing by the minute! If the scene at the fans’ screening of the due-for-release film, on 10th July at PVR Palladium’s IMAX screen in Bombay was any indication, the film is poised to be a blockbuster of epic proportions in India too. Just the excitement among the fans before the show started was enough to arrive at the conclusion that the film would turn out to be a mega hit. Watching the film — media persons were also invited to the same screening — only served to solidify the opinion one had formed about the film on the basis of the fans’ frenzy. A surprise appearance after the show by Nolan, producer Emma Thomas and heroes Matt Damon and Tom Holland had the audience literally going into ecstasy.
Universal Pictures India, which is distributing the film in India thru Warner Bros. Discovery, has a blockbuster in its hands, the bigness of which, probably, even it may not have imagined. For, it is not everyday that fans come from all over India — and abroad too — to catch a film in its advance screening. An IT professional from Bangalore, trying to play down his excitement, told Information, before the show started, “I’ve taken leave from my office to come to Bombay for this show.” And his statement was made so matter-of-factly that it was clear, this film meant the world to him and to turn down an invitation to watch the film in a fans’ screening one week prior to its theatrical release would be nothing short of foolhardiness. His feelings could as well be echoed by over a thousand other fans present at the special show. And by the lakhs of the celebrated filmmaker’s other fans who weren’t as lucky to be invited to the advance screening.
The Odyssey has been dubbed (by Ashim Samanta) in three Indian languages — Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. One wonders why the producers or the all-India distriibutors (Universal) have not dubbed the film in the other two South Indian languages, Kannada and Malayalam. And how much cost would dubbing in each of these two languages entail? Our guess is an expenditure of not more than Rs. 14-15 lakh. Do they think, it may not make commercial sense to spend an additional Rs. 28-30 lakh to dub the film in the two languages? If they do, they would be widely off the mark. Yes, it is not a regular practice to dub Hollywood films in Kannada and Malayalam. But does that mean that films like The Odyssey should also be out of reach for members of the public who watch Kannada and Malayalam films but are not used to watching films in English? Pertinent to note that these very Hollywood films are dubbed in many more languages (besides Hindi, Tamil and Telugu, and including Kannada and Malayalam) for the OTT channels. Yes, that dubbing is done by using comparatively lesser dubbing artistes, but even that entails an additional expenditure of Rs. 7-9 lakh per language. Why don’t the studios realise that by spending a few lakhs extra, they would have the potential blockbuster in another language, which can be released in the cinemas?
Someone has to break new ground rather than follow tradition. Someone thought of dubbing Jurassic Park in Hindi in 1993, before which Hollywood films were never dubbed in Indian languages. It is thanks to that pioneer’s vision that we have scores of Hollywood films doing business of crores of rupees every year in India. Maybe — just maybe — other language versions are waiting to happen. Surely, one can start with films for which the craze is like that visible for The Odyssey.