In 2023, when the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of TV artists and radio (SAG-AFTRA) closed Hollywood for four months, seeking, among other things, artificial intelligence (AI), many in India wondered why nothing was happening there. One of the movement’s concerns was how large studios were going to use AI to reproduce artists’ similarities in a way that could be an operator. The strike ended with a three -year agreement which guaranteed a fair salary and included arrangements that forced artists to approve how their voices were used.
Nothing of this kind has happened in India since. But there is a small niche section of the entertainment industry where the effects of AI are felt intensely: the dubbing and voiceover sector. Concerts have already started to disappear. As for the nature of the work, these are strange moments in the Indian industry. If you are a dubbing artist, you may find that your voice has been used in a film you have never worked on.
Why the vocal sector? Perhaps because some of the progress of generative AI – such as vocal text model or vocal cloning – have developed aspects such as copyright, remuneration and consent in an informal industry of around 20,000 independents. The association of Voice Artists of India (AVA) is more active than ever, issuing circulars and organizing forums for artists in their quest to make known how to survive and ask for fair wages in an uncertainty environment.
The AI has not yet evolved to completely replace traditional dubbing – it often cannot make emotions convincingly. What he can do is a clearer narration, devoid of theater and nuances – perfectly functional for infopurations and corporate audiovisuals, user manuals and even television promotions. Many artists doubling the moonlight in these areas to complete income – and this company sub -sector has taken a major success. The vocal text has reduced costs (for the customer) but completely eliminated the vocal artist.
“If earlier an actor of voice carried out about 15 to 20 projects per month, he has now arrived at perhaps six or seven,” explains Amarinder Singh Sodhi, the secretary general of Ava – and also the Hindi voice of Hawkeye (Avengers gathers) and the blade (Deadpool and Wolverine). “And she or she is probably 40 or 50 years old,” he adds. “It’s not easy to change your profession overnight at this age.”
In 2023, when the SAG-Aftra strikes were activated, actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt wrote a passionate and Clarion call for a just requiring salary requiring “technology giants, entertainment giants and all other giants of profit” to use people as resources to train AI. “What is hidden behind the IA curtain? The cost of human labor that it took to produce training data,” he wrote. “” Generative AI “cannot generate anything at all without being first trained on massive data, then recombines. Who produces this training data? People do it. “
Sodhi and his colleagues fight the same fight. Before taking a project, they want to know what they get started in, so they are not exploited. Technological companies – normally based in the United States – often approach vocal artists to lend their voice to a project in vague terms, without specifying how, where and in what form their voice will be used. The lack of laws for the use of AI has indicated that vocal artists, in particular new and less experienced, remain vulnerable to such offers. Thus, AVA decided to educate it. “If you go ahead, you should understand that your voice is your intellectual property. And it could be used badly. And the use of voice could be to this extent that your future prospects as a voice artist can be compromised, ”explains Sodhi.
“Earlier, we used to go to the studio, where we were awarded a particular script, and we used to record and then go home, without ever asking questions. But now the scenario has changed,” he adds. “Our basic rule is that even before going for a hearing, ask questions-ask them exactly for which you take this hearing, because the random scripts will be a complete non-NU from now.”
Aditya Mathur, the voice of the Nickelodeon chain, echoes Sodhi. “I can express in English, then the same can be captured and used in many languages that AI can do, which essentially means that I am supposed to be paid for these multiple languages,” he says.
It is not only a question of compensation – it is also consent. “Tomorrow, if someone sends me a clip of a speech of hatred with my voice in it, I will be horrified, because I do not support it. And the voice is part of our personality. This is our identity, ”explains Rakhee Sharma, who has been working in the vocal industry since she was a child and expressed Kate Winslet in the Hindi Dub of the Hindi Dub of Avatar: Water pathamong others. “There are so many ethical and moral problems linked to the same thing,” she adds.
The last miracle of the voice of AI is cloning – a kind of equivalent of the word of a deep fake visual. It allows the user to apply the texture of a vocal actor to the performance of another. This made possible an unthinkable feat possible: you can now hear your Bollywood star speaking in favorite Hindi the lines, let’s say, in Telugu, in his own voice (and not the dubbing artist). It is obviously an improvement in traditional dubbing, which gives it authenticity. But where does he leave the dubbing artist? They are always necessary, producing the very important “performance” on which the texture of the star voice will be applied.
The Rajashrie Sharma dubbing producer speculates that it could lead customers to pay less. “If a dubbing artist was to charge approximately 3 lakhs or 4 lakhs (about $ 3,500 to $ 4,500) to double a theatrical film earlier, there could be an argument now that” we are not going to broadcast your voice. We will simply use your performance and duplicate it, “she says.
How popular is a tool that vocal cloning becomes likely to become in series of films and streaming? He has already been seen in films such as Kalki 2898 AD And Vettaiyan – The two films in southern India with a pan-Indian appeal. And Kannada, director and founder of the Voice cloning studio, AI Samhitha, MG Srinivas, says that “most of the great films that come out in several languages are doing it right now”.
Srinivas himself used vocal cloning in his latest film, GhostAnd is enthusiastic about his prospects in Indian cinema. He says that the cloning of the voice will not mean the underpaid of artists. “It’s not like someone – any average voice artist – can come and give the voice, and we can clone him in the voice of the actor,” he insists. “It won’t work like that. The dubbing artist must be highly qualified. He must do the right modulations. It must be technically strong, where the bass voice must be a certain way and so on. ”
Srinivas, who was a DJ radio, says that he knows the importance of the voice. “Dubbing artists bring something original, authentic. Currently, there is no technology to replace it, but five years later, who knows? ”
The way for vocal artists is to adapt to the relentless walk of technology. But the initiates say that there must be regulations in place. Unlike the United States, where clauses and contracts have been signed concerning the use of AI in India, there has not yet been any binding industry or government intervention agreements. “Any government or country would like to take advantage of AI. It is such a technology that it can stimulate productivity, but it can also disrupt a lot of lives, ”explains Sodhi. His colleague Ankur Javeri – who expressed all the announcements of Virat Kohli until recently and is the Hindi voice of Goku in Dragonball Z – said that to have this kind of impact, other unions from other post-production units must also join the hands.
Said Javeri: “The people of Sag-Aftra have encountered a lot of resistance from large companies, whether on 20th Century Fox or Paramount, but ultimately they had to complete under collective negotiation. We need something like that.”
