The secret behind Samantha's voice

Even as Samantha is being appreciated for her role of Rama Lakshmi in the film Rangasthalam, some credit is also due to Jyothi Varma, who gave her voice to the actress, who played a village girl with a Godavari slang.

Although Chinmayi is usually the first choice for Samantha’s voiceovers, Jyothi Varma was greatly appreciated in this film. “Initially, they asked me to do the track dubbing. It is director Sukumar who was impressed with my voice and asked me to continue,” says Jyothi Varma, who managed to get the Godavari accent correctly.

“I was born and brought up in Polavaram, so I got the accent easily. The direction team had also briefed me, so I just went with the flow,” says Jyothi. 
The film turned out to be a huge hit and Jyothi got as much appreciation as the other artistes. “The dubbing artistes’ work is not noticed by many people, because we are always behind the screen. Some people don’t even know we exist!” she says.

Till now, Jyothi has completed nearly 100 films as a dubbing artiste and loaned her voice to some of the prominent leading ladies like Rakul Preet Singh, Pragya Jaiswal, Anushka Shetty, Sayami Kher, Seerath Kapoor and Priyamani among others. “I have given my voice to different genres and roles. I was Anushka’s voice in Vedam and director Krish guided me along. I got good appreciation for it,” recalls Jyothi.

Interestingly, Jyothi’s father was associated with producer K.V.V. Satyanarayana’s Soudamini Creations. “I wanted to start acting and even anchored a few shows, but then one of my relatives suggested dubbing as a career. So I auditioned and got selected. That’s how I settled as a dubbing artiste,” explains Jyothi, whose notable films include Kanche, Venkatadri Express, Rey, Vedam, Raju Gari Gadhi 2, Nayaki and Dhoni.