Priyanka, Irrfan to voice Hindi version of ‘The Jungle Book’

Bollywood actress-turned-international-sensation Priyanka Chopra has been roped in to lend her voice for the Hindi version of Hollywood movie ‘The Jungle Book’. Besides the ‘Quantico’ actress, Irrfan Khan, Om Puri, Nana Patekarand Shefali Shah will also be dubbing for the characters in the live-action movie, according to reports.

‘The Jungle Book’ is a re-imagining of Walt Disney's 1967 animated movie of the same name which was an adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s eponymous classic. The live-action movie has been directed by Jon Favreau and features Indian-American Neel Sethi in the role of Mowgli, the man-cub raised by a family of wolves in the jungle. The film is slated to release worldwide on April 7.

The Indian version will release a day later on April 8. Priyanka, who recently lent her voice to the Marvel video game ‘Avengers Academy’ as Miss Marvel, will lend her voice for the character of Kaa the python. Hollywood star Scarlett Johansson has lend her voice in the English version.

Irrfan will get in the shoes of Bill Murray as Baloo, the friendly bear, while Shefali Shah will be Raksha the wolf, originally voiced by Lupita Nyong'o. Om Puri will lend his voice to Bagheera, the panther, in place of Ben Kingsley in the Hollywood version. Nana Patekar will dub for Shere Khan, the tiger voiced by Idris Elba in the original.

The star cast will be dubbing the live action film in the Hindi language before it hits theatres on April 8. Priyanka, who is juggling between her Hollywood film ‘Baywatch’ and her television show ‘Quantico’, will reportedly squeeze in time for the dubbing.

‘The Jungle Book’ was slated to be released on April 15 in India, alongside Shah Rukh Khan's ‘Fan’, but the release date was preponed by a week in order to avoid a clash with the Bollywood movie.

This is not the first time the release date of a Hollywood movie in India has been changed. Last year, Daniel Craig's ‘Spectre’, which was originally scheduled to release on November 12, was postponed to avert a clash with Salman Khan's ‘Prem Ratan Dhan Payo’.