Not only does the job require vivid imagination for the action-packed movie, but he needed to be versatile and use different kinds of intonation.

“At first, I thought it was going to be easy but after undergoing the dubbing process for 10 days, I realised the task was not as easy as I had expected.

“It was because I needed to pay attention to the content, the timing, tone of voice and emotional feelings expressed in the dialogue,” he told Bernama recently.

The Malay version of Kabali was to be released next week but has been postponed to July 29. The original version in Tamil will be screened simultaneously worldwide on Friday.

Arun was among local celebrities who dubbed the movie, Rajinikanth’s 159th, from Tamil into Malay for the first time by Malik Streams Corporation Sdn Bhd.

Others involved were actress Fathia Latiff, for Dhansika who plays the role of Rajinikanth’s daughter, and actor Jalaluddin Hassan for the character of the villain.

Other local actors, Rosyam Nor, Norman Hakim, Zack Taipan and Tony Kassim, and popular Taiwan actor Winston Chao, were also involved.

Arun said that the dubbing was done in Chennai, India, from June 17.

“My dubbing sessions alone took 10 days, and every day I took about 14 hours to do it,” he said.

The 27-year-old said he injured his throat several times until he lost his voice especially while shouting and raising his voice like the Indian superstar.

The script translator, Mohd Hafizfuddin Derani, better known as Hafid Derani, said his challenges were to ensure that the dialogue in Malay was easily understood and carried the same meaning as in Tamil.

Hafid expressed his pride and excitement at working with the crew from Tamil film production company V Creations. “I learned a lot from them, whose experience and knowledge is far beyond ours. The gap between the Malaysian and Indian film industry is very big, we are lagging more than 30 years behind them,” he said.

In ‘Kabali’, Rajinikanth (real name Shivaji Rao) plays the role of a crime don in Malaysia known as Kabaliswaran, from which the title is derived.