Chennai, April 15: For the men and women who make up Tamil Nadu's small-screen world, the writing is on the lips.
Of course, the lips may not always match the sound. But so smooth has been the flow of this "invasion" that the state's history of anti-Hindi resilience seems to have been swept away in the prime-time tide of Hindi serials dubbed in Tamil.
Their livelihood in peril, hundreds of television actors, many of them former film stars, and technicians today went on a one-day strike to urge Tamil channels to ban dubbed serials.
The protest - that ensured no TV shootings took place through the day - came days after a once-prolific director of Tamil serials committed suicide.
Poovilangu Mohan, a TV star with over three decades of experience in the industry, confirmed what he called a serious crisis.
"The Tamil TV industry is facing a serious crisis. Of the 85 slots available across six major Tamil channels during prime time, 45 have been taken over by dubbed serials during the past three years, while reality and game shows occupy another 15 slots," Mohan said.
Many technicians and support staff, he added, have lost their jobs because of this trend.
Sources said Balaji Yadav, who killed himself last week, had run up heavy debts, as he had no new serial to direct because of the flood of dubbed serials.
Zee Tamil shows dubbed versions of its popular Hindi serials. Polimer TV, another Chennai-based channel, telecasts only dubbed serials bought from Sony and Colors. STAR Vijay, which had an innovative mix of Tamil serials, game and talk shows, had to follow suit by telecasting dubbed Hindi serials.
So, Sasural Simar Ka (The home of Simar's in-laws) becomes Moondru Mudichu (Three knots of mangalsutra) and Diya Aur Baati Hum (We are the earthen lamp and wick) unfolds as En Kanavan En Thozhan (My husband, my friend) in Tamil Nadu.
"Viewers here know they are dubbed serials and we see them mainly for the drama and visual richness," said Raji Gopal, an avid serial viewer.
The rage caught on to such an extent that one newly launched channel telecasts a Korean serial dubbed in Tamil.
"Ultimately, it all boils down to economics," explained Kavitha Bharathi, president of the Small Screen Directors Association.
"While each episode of a Tamil serial costs Rs 1.5 to 2 lakh, one episode of the dubbed version costs less than Rs 20,000. Since Hindi serials have rich sets and fair, well-dressed artistes, the Tamil audience finds the serials attractive even if the lip-sync of dubbed dialogues is way off the mark."
Another director, Siddique, recently shifted his production base to Kerala. "I had no choice. The channels pegged down the cost to Rs 1 lakh per episode even as my production costs in Chennai shot up to over Rs 2 lakh per episode because of higher salaries for artistes and technicians and the steep rise in rents for locations," he explained.
Actor-producer Radhika, whose Tamil serials continue to top prime-time TV, urged Tamil channels to emulate their Telugu and Kannada counterparts by putting a cap on the number of dubbed serials between 6pm and 11pm.
Some channels are still loyal to the native tongue. V. Sriram, general manager of Vijay TV, said his channel screens dubbed serials only in the afternoon slots, never during prime time.
