Bollywood lyricist-writer Manoj Muntashir says the dubbed versions of films of some well-known southern stars did not meet with much success in the north Indian markets as the translations looked fake.
Muntashir has been responsible for dubbing in Hindi both the installments of "Baahubali".
The writer believes the film worked in Hindi because he just didn't "loosely translate" the script, that was originally in Tamil and Telugu. He says he made sure the Hindi dialogues find resonance with viewers.
"Since a long time, films from the south have been dubbed in Hindi and released in the Hindi circuits, but they all failed miserably. And these were films of biggies like Rajinikanth sir, Mamooty, Chiranjeevi...
"It's fake because when you are watching a high intensity drama of Rajinikanth in a theatre, neither is the lip-sync matching, nor the sentiment, it just doesn't connect," Muntashir told PTI in an interview.
He is now geared up for the release of the Hindi version of American superhero film "Black Panther", for which he did the writing in the Indian language.
Muntashir says he found the story quite Indian at heart and that is why he decided to work on its Hindi form.
"I attended the screening of 'Black Panther' and realised it was a Bollywood film, set in some imaginary land. It is like the tales we have heard in our childhood, about battles, kingdoms, it's like Mahabharata of the 21st century."
He says it becomes problematic when writers merely translate dialogues from one language to another without understanding the context and reference point.
"Before 'Baahubali', people used to take just two- three days to translate. They didn't keep the film in front of them while translating. They just had the script and loosely translated it."
The writer, who hails from Uttar Pradesh, says he understands the pulse of audience very well in the northern belt of India.
"People (in north) relate more with the language of flamboyance and that was the key to pen dialogues for 'Baahubali'. I caught their pulse and blurred the line between Tamil, Telugu and Hindi dialogues.".
"Black Panther" is scheduled to be released on February 16.
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