28 July,2023 12:55 PM IST | Mumbai | Devanshi Doshi
Shah dabbled in many jobs before realising his calling as a voice actor when he landed in Mumbai to fill in for another actor, and in 2020, for good. Pic/shadab khan
As an 11-year-old school-going boy in Surat, Dixon Shah had decided that Mumbai - the city of opportunities - would be his destination. It would take him another 26 years to realise this dream. For him, as he recalls, the journey was nothing short of, "entertainment, entertainment, entertainment."
It took over a week before Shah could finally give us time. "It's my schedule," he chuckles and reasons over the phone, giving off the first hint of truly conforming to a Mumbaikar's hustle-filled life. The voice actor has another recording to catch within an hour, and so we quickly jump on to the crux of the conversation. "As a child, I was fascinated by the entertainment industry. I always thought acting was my calling. And if there was one place that had the right opportunities for me, I knew at a very young age that it would be Mumbai," he tells us.
But what security could a mere dream in a city with little to no contacts in the industry offer? So, Shah found himself doing everything but what he really loved until his late 30s. He dabbled across professions from a martial arts trainer and tutor to event manager.
"In 2018, I got an opportunity to work as a voice actor for a Gujarati play Amruta Gandhi-Not Guilty that was being staged in Mumbai. My friends and family often told me that if I ever happen to go to Mumbai, I should begin with voice acting because my voice and words are very clear. Hence, I left my finance job and grabbed this opportunity," he reveals. As luck would have it, an actor dropped out of the production, and Shah, instead of being the voice actor, was called to Mumbai for the first time to participate in rehearsals. He went on to become the face of the play that staged over 150 shows across the world.
In 2019, right before the lockdown, Shah found himself in Surat again. Under the guidance of famous voice actor Rajesh Kava, he used this time to dub over 100 stories for Pratilpi Application in Hindi and Gujarati. When the lockdown began to ease towards the end of 2020, he was back in Mumbai - this time, permanently. "It was definitely a long shot. My sons were around six and four years old. But something inside me was sure that I could crack the city this time."
While actors like Surbhi Javeri Vyas helped him understand how the industry worked in Mumbai, they couldn't recommend him anywhere because of lack of experience. Shah was on his own. For the next few months, he found himself at the doors of every recording studio he knew, asking for a job. "Hi, I am Dixon Shah. I am from Gujarat and I want to become a voice actor," he'd say. "When they heard my name was Dixon, they'd be fine. But the moment they heard Shah, they'd say, "Are! Iska Hindi toh Tarak Mehta waala hoga," Shah laughs as he recounts more such encounters when he was written off as a voice actor in Hindi and English, simply because they assumed he had a Gujarati accent.
Meanwhile, keeping his family in mind, Shah was also scouting for paying jobs in the city. "But they wanted a local person. In the interview, they'd ask me questions like name all the stations between Virar and Bandra. And despite trying to learn it several times, I'd go blank. Transport is one thing in the city that I took a long time getting accustomed to," he admits, adding that he could never initially figure out how many hours prior one is required to leave home in order to reach a destination. "Back in Surat, you knew for sure that half an hour should be enough to reach anywhere. Here, if I tried leaving half an hour, an hour or even two hours before, I was still late," recalls Shah, who was living in Bhayandar with his city-based sister at the time.
But looking back, he thinks that luck was in his favour when he didn't get any finance related job. That meant there was just one more way to make it in the city - voice acting. So, he spruced up his strongest weapon, his Gujarati, and started afresh. "I was born and brought up in Gujarat; I can vouch that my Gujarati is slightly better than that of the Gujaratis here. In Mumbai, the Gujaratis have mixed up a few Hindi words in their dialect. For instance, they say "Rukk, hu aau chu" (Wait, I am coming). âRukk' is a Hindi word. In Gujarati, we say, "Ubho reh." And hence, he started out as a Gujarati voice actor. It took several months before the industry warmed up to him and started giving him smaller roles in Hindi - crowd dubbing, or a one and two-minute sequence.
One of his biggest milestones he thinks is when in 2022 he bagged the lead role in Hindi in Archive 81, a major Netflix show. "It was a matter of word of mouth then. Eventually, the tide turned. Instead of me having to ask around for jobs, people started reaching out," he says. Spared on only having to carry the weight of his Gujarati accent, he now started getting roles in English too. He dubbed for Hindi serials, Naagin and Radha Mohan in English. Soon, he was introduced to the world of Korean dramas like Sketch, Soloman and When the Weather is Fine.
One of the biggest movies of the year, Oppenheimer found its way in Shah's now fast-building list of achievements. "Mumbai doesn't take much time to come around. There will be hurdles, but eventually, it will accept you for you are. And if you prove your love and determination, it will show you surefire paths to success," he signs off.
Love about Mumbai People are very accepting
Hate about Mumbai The traffic and the mode of transportation. I still find it very difficult to board the local train from Virar station. I am not sure if I even know what (station) comes after Bandra. But I do think that I have cracked how much time it will take to reach a particular destination now
Expectations from Mumbai I expected it to have a sea of opportunities
Did Mumbai live up to it? Mumbai ne mujhe kabhi pareshan nahi kiya
Will it remain forever home? I moved my family here in 2022. My children attend a school in Malad, and I also own a home in Kandivali. So, it's a definite yes.
