Game of Thrones in Tatar: is it possible to make money out of Tatar Anthony Hopkins and Daenerys Targaryen?
Berensche Studio has already translated first two episodes of Game of Thrones into the Tatar language, started Westworld and hopes for a grant
The trailer of the TV series Westworld has appeared on the official website of the studio in social networks translated into Tatar — Үткән заман дөньясы. Shortly before that, the creative team Berensche Studio had completed the translation of the first episode of the first season of Game of Thrones — Тәхетләр уены. About where and when you can watch it, as well as about the global team's plans for the revival of the native language of the Tatars worldwide – in the interview of Realnoe Vremya with the creators of the studio and the authors of the project, Adel Zainullin and Liliya Khabibrakhmanova.
Тәхетләр уены — how it began
Last fall, a teaser for the first season of Game of Thrones with an unusual voice began to gain popularity on the Internet:
''Lord Eddard Stark! Мин сине уземнең үң кулымны итәргә җыенам!'' Lord of the Seven Kingdoms addresses to the head of the Starks in the video.
To the great surprise and joy of Tatar-speaking audience, the characters of the famous TV series were speaking their native language. It is a team of actors from Kazan, now working in Moscow, who had a hand in such an original product.
''Initially, the team was of three people who graduated from GITIS (the Russian University of Theatre Arts – editor's note). It is Iskander Nurizyanov, he played in our Theatre at Bulak, Albina Yusupova, who performs in the theatre Satyricon, and Adel Zainullin, he made up and arranged all of this. The three of them got together and decided to dub. Then I joined them as a producer,'' told the story of the creation of Berensche Studio Liliya Khabibrakhmanova.
The first series the studio started to work on is Game of Thrones. They made their decision, basing on the popularity of the series. This series leads most of the ratings. Yes, it is one of the favourites of the team themselves.''
They also have in mind other series: ''Wouldn't it be amusing to hear Harry Potter, Darth Vader, Walter White or Dr House speaking the Tatar language!'' addressed the team to the subscribers at the beginning of the work.
Later the project was joined by Nafisa Khairullina, an actress of the Kamal Theatre, Baibulat Batulaev, another actor from Kazan, in the past he was a presenter of an internet show Farhat ham Farhad, a popular DJ Ranil Nuriyev and a singer, finalist of the first season of the show The Voice Elmira Karimullina.
Most of the actors are graduates of the Moscow Art Theatre and the Russian University of Theatre Arts. In addition, there are professional actors who are now playing in theatre and cinema. The advantage is that they know the Russian dramatic school, which is recognized worldwide.
As for the authorization of the right holder to Game of Thrones in the Tatar language, the representatives of Berensche Studio said that the negotiations are under way:
''The issue with the rights to the show is under negotiation. I wouldn't like to disclose the details,'' said Liliya Khabibrakhmanova.
To teach the Tatars all over the word the language of Tukay!
The main goal of the studio, according to its creators, is to promote the Tatar language to the masses, highlight its beauty, modernity, cinogenicity, to act as a training ground to learn with the help of popular TV series. They started to present the project at various creative platforms. In particular, the stand of Games of Thrones in Tatar was exhibited at the II Moscow youth forum The Bridge Moscow-Tatarstan with the participation of Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov.
In January of this year, the team launched the second project on the dubbing of films. This time the characters of the series Westworld started to speak in Tatar. The trailer has already been posted on the website of the studio. Outstanding British and American film and theatre actor Anthony Hopkins, best known for the image of Hannibal Lector in Silence of the Lambs also started to speak Tatar. In the series, he plays Dr Robert Ford, the creative director of the futuristic Park Western World.
On its page, Berensche studio promises that this year will be ''the revival of the language for the Tatars all over the world''. Its creators complain that now the language and culture of the Tatar people are in decline and they are ready to begin to change the situation: ''We believe that a special interest in the emergence of the first professional polyphonic dub studio is also from the Tatars living abroad. For them, the preservation of culture and language is essential. We must not allow the Tatar language to sink into oblivion,'' promised the sponsors of the project on the official account.
The project can act as an educational platform for the Tatars around the world, believes the studio and they promise to do everything to achieve this. To make the language easier to learn, in the future the series in Tatar will be provided with subtitles in Russian.
''Yes, Berensche Studio quite ambitiously states that in 2017 they will start reviving the Tatar language. Maybe it's quite pathetic, but nonetheless, we believe that movies and dubbing of the movies bring the viewer closer to the language, language culture, culture of speech. Today we are talking about it. For us, it is very important because most Tatars simply do not speak the Tatar language. Many don't even understand it. If they are at least out of curiosity will start watching Game of Thrones — Тәхетләр уены — it will be interesting to them, even if it is not clear at first, but eventually they will have to get used to the speech they hear. They will have an interest themselves to speak it, study it, and be proud of their native language!'' believes Adel Zainullin.
''Each of us has a main job, we do a translation after it. But we like it a lot, it inspires us. And we believe we do a good job. We have a good support, so we have confidence that we will succeed. When we posted our trailer, we were not even thinking that there will be many views — about 20.000. We didn't expect it to be popular. When we saw that people need it, we realised that we need to continue to do it,'' said Liliya Khabibrakhmanova.
The team emphasises that Berensche Studio ''is a nonprofit project and exists only thanks to their authors, the project is not funded by other people or organisations. The team did not disclose the information about the cost of dubbing an episode in a professional studio in Moscow, saying only that it is quite expensive.
''We are pure charity. We want to raise our culture, our native language and we invest the time, effort and even money. For the present, the invited actors agree to work for free. People agree to work, they say it's a good thing. Youth organisations and representation help us in different ways,' thanked for the help Lilya Khabibrakhmanova.
Further, of course, they will need sponsors and patrons, said the authors of the project. The team hopes to win a grant for the development of the studio. However, for the movie audience movies in Tatar will always be free, assured the representative of the team.