Naseeruddin Shah in "The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen"

July 09, 2003: The $100 million movie is one of the more expensive films released this summer and opens across America this Friday

The flowing beard Shah wears, along with a turban, makes him look like a Sikh warrior. But he is something else: a Kali-worshipping character called Captain Nemo. Nemo is one of the many legendary literary characters in the movie; the list includes Allan Quartermain, Tom Sawyer, Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde and Dorian Gray.

A Hollywood director Stephen Norrington (Wesley Snipes-starrer Blade) is at his Los Angeles studio directing the voice modulation for a lead actor in his film The League of Extraordinary Gentleman.

The actor is Naseeruddin Shah; but he is dubbing in a Juhu studio, taking instructions from Norrington over telephone.

The entire transcontinental sound recording process for the film via phone and the Internet takes less than an hour and consequently a Mumbai sound studio becomes the first one perhaps to record for a Hollywood film.

This took place yesterday, and Nandoo Bhende, director, Insync studio says, “It was an urgently set up dubbing session, since the Hollywood filmmakers felt certain patches needed to be re-recorded in the last minute. Naseer couldn’t make it to LA and the only way to finish the session was from here itself.

The movie tape was sent to us, and after Naseer’s dubbing, the portions were dumped on to the 20th Century Fox site, to be downloaded and remixed.”

“This is a perfect example of a global village,” Bhende adds, citing how filmmakers abroad can use this unique sound recording over continents, “especially in ad films where an authentic Indian accent is required and can be supplied by voice-over artistes from right here.”

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, set in Victorian times and due American cinemas on July 11, comprises superheroes — like Allan Quatermain (Sean Connery), Dr Jekyll/Mr. Hyde (Jason Fleming) and Captain Nemo (Shah) — who team up to unsettle a villain’s planned domination over the globe.

The movie, released by 20th Century Fox, opens in an overcrowded season in America, and will have to face stiff competition from the flashier,
more expensive period drama, Pirates Of The Caribbean. Yet, it could become the sleeper hit of the season, opening to reasonably decent
numbers and building its popularity on good word of mouth.

In Britain, it opens August 15, and will open in most of Europe in October.