Rana Daggubati has lent his voice for the character of Robert Langdon, played by Oscar-winning star Tom Hanks, for the Telugu dubbed version of forthcoming Hollywood film Inferno.
Directed by Ron Howard, Inferno will open in India on October 14, two weeks ahead of the US release.
Apart from English, the film will be dubbed in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.
Daggubati saw a special cut of the film and immediately decided to come on board. He dubbed for Langdon’s part in three days at Ramoji Film City, Hyderabad, read a statement issued on behalf of the India distributors of the film.
“Tom Hanks is a legendary actor and to be a part of his legacy in this way made for an exciting partnership of sorts. More so, Inferno is quite significant for us in India because it truly celebrates the power of the Indian market for global players, given that they are releasing it two weeks ahead of the US,” Daggubati said.
Inferno — the third part of Dan Brown’s book after The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons — narrates a thrilling story of how Langdon, a professor of symbology at Harvard University, tries to save the world from a deadly plot.
The Sony Pictures Entertainment’s film also stars Indian actor Irrfan Khan, who joins Hanks’s character in his attempt to save the world.
Daggubati also said that dubbing for Hanks’s role was an enriching experience.
“As an actor, I learnt a lot while dubbing for an actor of the calibre of Hanks. I did a small exercise for myself where I got myself recorded while dubbing this helped me a lot in my performance. It was almost like getting trained from someone like Tom Hanks,” he said.
Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Nana Patekar, Shefali Shah and Om Puri lent their voice to characters of Hollywood film The Jungle Book for its Hindi dubbed version. And Salman Khan also dubbed for an animated feature film Hanuman Da Damdaar.
Daggubati said: “It is great that a lot of actors today are chosing to do voice overs and dubbing for Hollywood movies.”
“A great story made should reach many more people and by the way of dubbing a Hollywood film you tend to increase cinematic viewership for the audience and create the local connect. I would want to dub for many more films in future,” he added.
Daggubati is currently shooting for Baahubali: The Conclusion.
