Ish
Thakkar is an Indian actor, model, and a dubbing artist based out of Mumbai. Known
for his
appearance on season 8 of the popular MTV reality TV series
Splitsvilla, Ish is also a prominent dubbing artist, who has worked on
a large number of
movies and TV series.
IM: Can you tell us a bit about when you first got
interested in acting and modeling? Ish: After my graduation, I had moved to china to
work for a trading company and after fourteen months, I just realized that this
is not my thing. One of my uncles, Samay Thakkar has been working as an actor
and a dubbing artist for the past thirteen years, so he guided me and when I
moved back to Mumbai, I started working as a dubbing artist and soon after
SplitsVilla happened.
IM: How did SplitsVilla come along? Ish: Sometime after I
started working in dubbing, one of my friends had told me about the MTV
Splitsvilla auditions, so I mailed them my details and photographs. Following
which they send me a questionnaire with some forty questions and later was
asked to come in for a personal Interview.
At that point I had no Idea what the Interview is going to be like. During
the interview there were four people from the show, who asked me a bunch of
questions and around a month later I got a call from them, telling me that I
had been selected.
IM:What was the
experience like working on SplitsVilla? Ish: To be honest, it was
really good. I was living there for some eighteen day 24/7. They take all your
stuff and you are completely cut off from the outside world. You are just there
with the group and the crew member. I got along pretty well with everyone there,
so it was a very unique and interesting experience.
IM: And tell us a bit about your dubbing work, like what
kind of projects do you do? Ish: I mostly dub for the English versions of Bollywood
movies and TV shows, I did Main Tera Hero and Badlapur for Varun Dhawan, I have
dubbed for Shahid Kapoor, and quite a few more movies. Also have worked on a
lot on TV Shows, currently I am dubbing forBalika Vadhu.
IM: While dubbing for the English version do you try to
channel the actors you are dubbing for? Ish: Well I don’t really
try to imitate the actors, I feel that the most important thing is to get the
emotions right. There is a lot of voice modulation required, like when the
character is happy or sad. You also have to change your voice as per the age
and nature of the character. I am twenty four years old, so if I have to dub
for an older character, I need to change my voice to match that character and
then there is animation where you have to play with your voice and experiment.
I
recently dubbed for a movie where the hero is differently abled and can’t talk
properly. This was my most challenging project till date. While dubbing what I
would do is to put Vicks under my tongue to get it right.I was worth it; I got really positive
feedback from the film-makers and the actor.
IM: In the future do you see yourself concentrating more on
your dubbing work? Ish: To be honest, I
enjoy dubbing. When I am dubbing it just me, the mic, and the character and
that is it. I really enjoy this but now I am getting more and more experience
in front of the camera. Even this is interesting because you get to play
different characters.
IM: What kind of characters are your favorite? Ish: Intense and
negative. There is a lot of scope while playing negative characters and its
more fun.
IM: Are there any negative characters that you would like to
play? Ish: Well, there is
no one specific character but sometime back I used to dub for this professor’s
character for a TV Show. On the surface he seemed negative but his intentions
where good, he wanted good thing for the students. I would love to play some
complex roles like this. I also don’t want to get type casted and only do
negative roles.
IM: What dose fashion mean to you? Ish: Fashion for me is
comfort. You should feel comfortable and confident. Most of the times, I prefer
to be in my shorts and a T-shirt.
IM: How do you stay in shape? Ish: I am not a gym
freak. I just recently started to go to the gym but I do play football
regularly.
IM: Favorite cheat
meal? Ish: I love pizza,
specially butter chicken and chicken tikka.
IM: And finally your favorite city? Ish:Mumbai!Apart from the traveling part, I love everything about Mumbai.I was born and brought up here. When
you have lived in a city like Mumbai for this long, you don’t want to move
elsewhere.
