The Lion King Adds More Indian Stars to Its Hindi, Tamil, Telugu Dubs

With just two weeks to the film's release, Disney India has announced more cast members for the Hindi-, Tamil-, and Telugu-language dubbed versions of the upcoming remake of The Lion King. For the Hindi dub, Shernaz Patel (Black) has been cast as Simba's mother Sarabi, Achint Kaur (Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii) as one of Scar's hyena minions Shenzi, and voice-over artist Neha Gargava as Simba's best friend and love interest Nala. They join previously cast Shah Rukh Khan as Mufasa, his son Aryan Khan as Simba, Ashish Vidyarthi as Scar, Shreyas Talpade as Timon, Sanjay Mishra as Pumbaa, and Asrani as Zazu.

Meanwhile, P. Ravi Shankar (Kempe Gowda) will voice Mufasa in both the Tamil and Telugu versions of The Lion King remake. In the Tamil version, Siddharth (Rang De Basanti) is voicing Simba, Arvind Swamy (Roja) is the villain Scar, director-comedian Manobala (Sathuranga Vettai) is the red-billed hornbill Zazu, Aishwarya Rajesh (Vada Chennai) is Nala, director Singampuli (Mayaavi) is the wise-cracking meerkat Timon, and Robo Shankar (Maari) is the slow-witted warthog Pumbaa.

That leaves the Telugu version, where Disney India has cast Nani (Jersey) as Simba, Jagapathi Babu (Shubhalagnam) as Scar, Ali (Total Dhamaal) as Timon, Padma Shri-recipient Brahmanandam (Race Gurram) as Pumbaa, and playback singer Lipsika as Nala.

Disney India had also previously revealed that playback singers Sunidhi Chauhan and Armaan Malik would lend their voices to the Hindi soundtrack of The Lion King, as Nala and Simba, respectively.

The original English-language version of The Lion King remake features the voice talents of Donald Glover as Simba, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter as Nala, James Earl Jones as Mufasa, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Scar, Seth Rogen as Pumbaa, Billy Eichner as Timon, Alfre Woodard as Sarabi, John Kani as Rafiki, and John Oliver as Zazu, in addition to Florence Kasumba, Eric Andre, and Keegan-Michael Key as Scar's hyena minions Shenzi, Azizi and Kamari, and Amy Sedaris as an elephant shrew, a new character.

The Lion King will release July 19 in India in English, Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu.