Dubbing Artist Career Information
Dubbing Artists act through their voices, they even have fans, but Dubbing Artists do not have to be good-looking or born with a great body.
What a Dubbing Artist does
Dubbing artists, who project the personalities of characters with their voices, are engaging in an art form. Dubbing is commonly perceived as a funny career.
But dubbing is not as easy and simple as most people think. Generally, dubbing artists preview the animation, movie or documentary only once before the actual dubbing.
Dubbing Artists only have a "rewrite" to match the action on the screen. The "rewrite" is the translated Cantonese script that fits the opening and closing of the mouths of the characters.
Job Opportunity
Considering the multilingual nature of our country, there is a great demand for dubbing artistes.
Some of the larger film and television production houses have their own in-house dubbing departments.
You could lend your voice to documentaries, programmes or ad films; you could work by day or by night.
Career Prospects
The need for dubbing artists is ever increasing. Epics like the Ramayana and Mahabharata, which were originally made in Hindi, are now dubbed in most of the Indian and several foreign languages.
Also, almost every Hollywood film, big or small, which is now screened in India, has a Hindi release. Similarly, a large number of popular serials and ‘infotainment’ programmes are now being dubbed in Indian languages to increase their viewership.
Abilities & Traits Required
A Dubbing Artiste needs to be fluent and well versed in languages, should be able to make a mark, and should be adaptable enough to match inflections and pauses to attune with the original.
It is a good idea to temper a Dubbing Artist CV with an audiotape of their voice in different languages, styles and speeds.
To be a professional dubbing artist, one must be able to do characters ranging from different ages and sexes to animals and various personalities.
Qualifications
No special degree or diploma required for this career. You need to have a great skill of modulating your voice, clarity and accurate pronunciation. You also need to have good dialogue delivery and lip sync ability.
However, due to recent demand in the industry, there are few certificate courses and workshops available.
Salary
Voicing/dubbing is a field that offers extreme flexibility, a great deal of choice and independence. As a Dubbing Artist, you could venture into a career in voicing while purchasing a vacation far removed from television or radio.
As a Dubbing Artist you could lend his/her voice to documentaries, programmes or ad films in English, Hindi or any other language.
In TV serials, dubbing artistes are paid about Rs. 1000/- per episode, but depending on the artiste’s capability and the length and complexity of the role, Dubbing Artists command as much as Rs. 10000/- per episode.
In films you can make as much as Rs. 75000/- by lending your voice to a single character on the screen, if you are really good.