Chennai: Lion King, the film which was released as an animated version in 1994 has a huge fan following even today and after 25 years, the film is all set to be released as a photo-realistic computer animated remake.
The film is also dubbed in Tamil and prominent actors like Siddharth, Arvind Swami, Aishwarya Rajesh, Mano Bala, Singam Puli and Robo Shankar have lent voices for the film. The tamil trailer was launched here in the city, Monday.
Speaking at the launch, actor Siddharth, who lent his voice for the character Simba said, “Lion King is one film which not only kids, but people across all ages like to watch. This is a very simple story and the success of the film lies in how the simple story is portrayed in a big way. So, when I was offered the Simba character, I was very excited to dub for a lion because I am very bored of watching myself and dubbing for it for the past 15 years. Dubbing for Simba was an opportunity of a lifetime.”
Siddharth who is a huge fan of The Lion King also spoke highly of the film. “While watching it in animation, the film was beautiful and once I also watched a stage-play of the same story in New York and I was stunned and impressed. Now while watching the film again in computer graphics, it looks as if we are watching a real lion on the screen. They have gone one step further than what they did with Jungle Book and I was completely blown away. I am proud to be part of such a film.”
Arvind Swami had already lent his voice for Simba 25 years ago and now he has dubbed for Scar, specking about it he said, “25 years back I dubbed for Simba to gain the experience of dubbing for an animated film. Now while analysing the character of Scar, it is the one that provides a lot of twists and turns in the story and makes the film interesting. So it was very interesting to bring the cunning nature and slyness of the character in the tones and voice modulation.” When asked which one of the two characters between Simba and Scar he likes the most he was quich to admit “Scar”
“Only while dubbing for the film, I came to know about the film’s first installment. It was a very different experience dubbing for this movie, usually while dubbing for a film we will spontaneously say some dialogues but here there was no chance to do it, I have to watch each and every move of Thumba and dub accordingly,” says Robo Shankar who lent his voice for Thumba.
The Lion king releases on 19 July in English, Tamil, Hindi and Telugu.