I’m sure I’m not the only one who fell in love with Sushant Singh Rajput all over again after watching his last film Dil Bechara on Disney+Hotstar. You feel a sudden pang as you see Sushant on-screen so alive and happy, having given his best to Manny. It would be a lie to say that I didn’t end up crying by the end of the film. But did you know that some bits of Sushant’s voice had to be dubbed after his untimely demise? It was Ishq FM‘s RJ Aditya who helped Mukesh Chhabra with the same. Aditya took to his Instagram handle to let the world know that he had dubbed for Dil Bechara. And quite naturally it came as a surprise to many who had watched the film as nobody could tell the difference. But instead of giving away the bits that he had done for the film, he shared his audition tape which was a bit from Sushant’s film MS Dhoni: The Untold Story.
Take a look:
I got to chat with Aditya about the process of dubbing for Sushant and how it all came about.
Talking about how he was chosen to voice Sushant, he revealed:
I think how it all started off was after the really shocking and unfortunate death of Sushant. Nobody could have ever thought that would happen. I think after that, there was a bit of voice work left for the movie which Sushant couldn’t do. And the production team was looking for people and had tried out various voice actors to do it for them but I guess they hadn’t found one. That’s when someone from Mukesh Chhabra’s office reached out to me and asked me to try out Sushant’s voice. They sent me a voice clip from MS. Dhoni that I was supposed to try. And well, it took me some time because I had never really tried out Sushant’s voice before even though I’ve done many other voices. So, this was the first time I was doing his voice. But as soon as I sent my audition, I got a call from Mukesh Chhabra’s office saying that Mukesh wants to speak to me.
He further added:
It took me 2 more days to prep for Sushant’s voice in the movie because it wasn’t just about mimicking his voice, it was about getting the emotions of the character right as well. It wasn’t about lip-syncing it. So I was on video calls with the team asking them if everything was okay and how I can do it better and just to get the entire emotion right.
Delving more into the work that was done by him for Dil Bechara, he said that he helped only in bits where Sushant’s voiceover had to come in.
So I haven’t voiced him for any of the parts that he’s present in the scene for, Sushant himself had done all of that. I’m not going to give away which portions I’ve done, because it’s a very important part of the movie.
Talking about the response he’s received after he broke the news, he said:
I’m happy when people tell me that they didn’t even recognize my voice because that means I’ve done a good job. And to me, this is the way I could pay a tribute to Sushant. And I didn’t want to put this out immediately of course because I just wanted to be respectful and I didn’t want to ride in on the tragedy. I just wanted it to be something I had to do and hopefully have done well as a tribute to Sushant. I didn’t want to put the bits that I’ve done for the film either because I don’t want to give away spoilers.
Aditya also talked about how mimicry as an art form is not appreciated in our country as much as it should be. He says most people consider it to be just an imitation of someone else. Aditya hopes that going forward voice artists and mimicry artists get the recognition they deserve as it is important for anyone to grow.
I think Aditya did a fantastic job in Dil Bechara because I wouldn’t have been able to tell that someone else had dubbed for certain bits of the film.
What about you? Did you figure it out?