The English conversation between actors Amitabh Bachchan and Ben Kinsley in the forthcoming film “Teen Patti” has been dubbed in Hindi for the single screen audience, producer Ambika Hinduja of Serendipity films said.
The movie has been directed by Leena Yadav.
“In the movie Mr. Bachchan’s character Venkat is narrating his journey to Perci Trachtenberg (Ben Kingsley). Of course, Sir Ben doesn’t speak Hindi. Their conversation is in English. Those particular scenes, which come at a very important juncture in the movie, have been dubbed for the single screen audience,” Hinduja told IANS.
“Mr. Bachchan has dubbed for himself and Boman Irani has dubbed for Sir Ben,” she added.
Hinduja maintains that though the film is releasing worldwide, it has not been dubbed for the overseas non-traditional market but has been subtitled for some selected regions.
“Currently the worldwide release is Feb 26. We are starting with the traditional territories. We have got some non-traditional territories like Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria that have shown keen interest in the film and we are releasing it there. For the Middle East, Gulf and these non-traditional territories we have subtitled the film in English and Arabic,” said Hinduja.
Around Rs.30 crore was spent on “Teen Patti.” It is going to have a big release with 900 prints for India and abroad along with 1700 UFOs (digital print). Serendipity films is still negotiating with some countries who have shown an interest in releasing the film.
“We have 900 prints for India and overseas along with 1,700 UFOs. Every single day we get calls to release the film in Europe and in some Southeast Asian countries, but you know the deal has to make sense for us so we are going to exploit it peacefully,” said the producer.
This is her second film after “Being Cyrus” (2005) which was directed by Homi Adajania and her first mainstream Hindi film.
Hinduja involved herself with every frame of “Teen Patti”.
“I am the creative producer and was involved in every aspect, stage and process of the film and the making of it. Because it is my second film and the first mainstream film, I wanted to give it my best and establish my company with “Teen Patti”,” said Hinduja.
Asked about the genre of the film, she said: “I can’t give a specific genre to “Teen Patti”. It is a thriller, a drama and it’s a film for the global audience. It deals with a universal theme like greed, deception, relationships and most importantly achievements and all of us across the globe can identify with these particular themes. “
The movie was invited by 12 film festivals but Hinduja didn’t accept any of them because of a fear of piracy.
“We were invited by 12 film festivals, but piracy is a big threat. For example, the movie ‘What’s your Raashee’ was screened at the Toronto film festival five days before its release and it was out in the market before the release. For a movie like ‘Being Cyrus’ there was no competition in the market, there was no threat; it was first of its kind so we took it to various festivals. It was highly appreciated and after being written about, we released the film,” said Hinduja.
