Exclusive | Sayani Gupta on Becoming Priyanka Chopra’s Hindi Voice in 'The Bluff'

Actor Sayani Gupta has stepped into a distinctive new role, lending her voice to Priyanka Chopra Jonas for the Hindi dubbed version of The Bluff. The move comes as a surprise for fans particularly given Chopra’s long-standing practice of dubbing her own Hindi lines.

For Gupta, the call itself came with instant excitement. “When they approached me to be PC’s voice, I was quite excited. I absolutely adore her — she’s someone I deeply admire,” she said.

Voice work, she explained, has been a lifelong discipline rather than a recent pivot. “I’ve always loved voice work. I’ve trained in it and done it since I was very little. In fact, my very first pay cheque was for an All India Radio ad when I was five years old — I got ₹500 for it,” Gupta recalled. “Elocution, recitation, voice modulation and diction are things my father trained me in since I was a kid, so I enjoy it a lot. There’s immense scope in performance just through voice and breath.”

Even so, stepping in for another actor carries its own pressures. “Dubbing for someone else is very tricky. I only did it because it’s PC — she’s terrific,” Gupta said, noting that the vocal alignment helped. “We both have husky, grainy voices with a deeper timbre, so it was a voice match.”

That match, she added, gave her room to play within the performance rather than merely replicate it. “She’s amazing in the film, which gave me a great range to work with. PC is a force of nature, and so is Ercell, her character in The Bluff — a total boss. But I had to do justice to her performance and every nuance that she so intricately etched.”

One of the more unexpected moments involved music. “She also sings beautifully in a scene, which I got to sing for as well,” Gupta said. “It was super fun because PC’s performance is delicious.”

The assignment is particularly notable because, as Gupta was informed, Chopra typically handles her own Hindi dubbing. “She generally does all her dubs herself. And this is the first time someone else has done her Hindi dub, I was told,” she noted.

Beyond The Bluff, Gupta’s voice résumé stretches back further than many realise. She revealed that she was the voice behind the Apple iPhone 6s campaigns across Southeast Asia in 2015–16 — work she was previously contractually unable to discuss. She also remembers auditioning years ago to dub for Florence Pugh. “I saw her performance and told everyone, ‘Who is this girl — what an actor!’ Later she became who she is,” Gupta said.

Looking ahead, the actor is keen to explore more large-scale voice work. “Superhero films would be great. I’d love to be part of the Marvel and DC universe, and also animation films,” she said.

For Gupta, however, the craft remains deeply personal. “Honestly, it’s the coolest thing to be recognised by one’s voice. My father would be happy from wherever he is,” she reflected. “He used to always say — because I had a deep voice even as a kid — ‘When you grow up, people will appreciate your voice.’ So any voice work that I do, it’s like a homage to him.”