'Azadi' director approached me after watching my performance in 'Love Today', 'Maamannan'

Actor-dubbing artist Raveena Ravi never wanted to pursue a career in films. In fact, she wanted to become a banker and even enrolled for an undergraduate course in banking in Chennai. But she hardly spent time at the college as she was always busy getting calls to dub for movies.

“My mother was so sure that I would end up in the film industry, but I didn't want to have anything to do with cinema. My father would often get calls from college asking him to pay the fine, as I didn't have enough attendance. I guess I was foolish to think cinema was not my passion,” said Raveena, who comes from a family of artists. Her mother Sreeja Ravi is a popular dubbing artist, while her grandmother was a theatre and dubbing artist.

She made her debut as a voice actor in 2012 with the film ‘Saattai’. Since then, there has been no looking back. Today, she is one of the most sought-after dubbing artists in the South Indian industry. She is also making a mark as an actor with powerful roles in films like ‘Maamannan’ and ‘Love Today’. In fact, she was cast in the upcoming Malayalam movie ‘Azadi’ due to her performance in both these films.

In ‘Azadi,’ directed by Joe George, Raveena plays the central character involved in a prison break. Interestingly, when Joe first approached her about the film, her character had dialogues. However, after some changes were made, her character became speech-impaired and pregnant. (She laughs.)

“Joe told me that they decided to make this change to gain more sympathy for the character. In a way, I was relieved since I had several scenes with Vani chechi (Vani Viswanath), who plays a police officer in the movie. Vani chechi is such a natural actor, and I was initially worried about how I would perform alongside her. Thankfully, I didn’t have to speak,” the actor said with a laugh.

Raveena had to learn a bit of sign language for the movie, which was one of the challenges she faced while getting into the skin of the characer. But the 31-year-old says it is these challenges that excite her the most. Raveena still recalls how she acted in a 13-minute single-take shot for the Tamil movie ‘Rocky’, which was both exciting and challenging for her.

The actress expresses that she loves both dubbing and acting equally, feeling that she cannot distinguish between the two. However, she finds dubbing comes more easily to her, while acting requires some preparation beforehand. She is quite selective about her film roles, stating, "I always strive to be part of projects that offer something new. After 'Love Today,' I turned down several roles as an elder sister, and I remember rejecting eight offers." Although she understands her mother’s concerns about her being choosy, her mother often chides her for it.

Working as a dubbing artist

Though Raveena has dubbed for several big names in the South Indian industry, she says dubbing for Nayanthara was her biggest challenge. “I was only in college when my mom took me to the dubbing studio to dub for Nayanthara for the film ‘Bhaskar The Rascal’. I had just returned home for my holidays and was hoping to watch her do her job. However, my mom, who dubbed for Nayanthara since ‘Manasinakkare’ felt I could offer a freshness to Nayanthara's character in the film with my voice. Till then, I had only dubbed for child artists and this was a huge challenge. I put a lot of pressure on myself, but everyone was happy with the end result. Even Nayanthara sent me message expressing her happiness,” she said. Since then, she has dubbed for Nayanthara in several films, including ‘Life of Josutty’ and ‘Love Action Drama’.

Capturing the essence of the actors for dubbing is a challenge, but Raveena thinks one can ace the game if one is observant enough. “I watch the film a couple of times before dubbing. I am particular about that and then go ahead with the director’s vision,” she said.