

The use of a few select dubbing artists to lend their voices to heroines limits the type of female voices heard (from lead roles) in Tamil movies and narrowly defines the types of women's voices that are associated with someone who is attractive or good. The male actors–including non-native speakers–often use their own voice. Even though the inability to speak Tamil is one of the reasons for this practice, it does not explain why female stars mostly use a dubbed voice.

In Tamil movies, this trend has been common since the 1980s among female actors in lead roles but not among lead male actors.

The term " dubbed voice " refers to the practice of using a voice-actor or dubbing artist to deliver the dialogue while someone else acts in the movie. The data for this study came from a content analysis of 40 Tamil movies produced in India (1961–2012), 8 websites related to voice dubbing in Tamil movies, and 4 YouTube videos. This paper explores how heroines' voices are presented in Tamil movies and provides empirical evidence about gender inequality in the aural practices of Tamil movies. Without understanding the use of sound in films, a comprehensive knowledge of the meaning and ideology of movies is not possible. Scholars have argued that sound in films has not been given much theoretical attention. The article tries to theorize the emergence of a rap music video culture in Kerala and the Internet publics through the debates on public sphere and how they are caught up with questions of historical memory and identity. It also maps the meaning of rap and hip hop in the Indian sub continent and its relationship to power and hegemony in the musical soundscape of Kerala. It analyzes the post globalization musical cultures in Kerala, mapping its techno-social and aesthetic practices and how they bear upon listening practices. This article is an attempt to map and analyze these practices through the video texts of some of these hip hop videos, websites and interviews with the artists and key actors. In distinct yet interlocked ways these videos signal a changing musical culture in Kerala, one that is enabled by new networks and a rapidly changing techno social soundscape and its accompanying listening practices and music culture. The release of a series of YouTube videos in India particularly in Kerala represents distinct response to the Rap music culture. Hip hop and Rap has been available to various musical cultures all over the world inspiring the imagination of youth and politicizing them along the process.
