While Shah Rukh Khan is set to lend his voice to Mufasa in the Hindi version of Mufasa: The Lion King, Mahesh Babu and Arjun Das will voice the character in Telugu and Tamil, respectively, PVR Cinemas said in a post on Wednesday, offering a glimpse at the star-studded voice cast for the film.
“Unveiling the powerful voices bringing the characters of Mufasa: The Lion King to life in Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu! 🔥Watch Mufasa: The Lion King in PVR INOX on 20th December,” the multiplex chain wrote on Instagram.
Shah Rukh, who voiced Mufasa in the Hindi dub of the 2019 musical drama The Lion King, will reprise his role in the upcoming prequel film. His son Aryan is also returning as Simba, with AbRam voicing the young Mufasa. Sanjay Mishra and Shreyas Talpade will also return as Pumbaa and Timon, respectively.
In the Hindi version, the trailer for which was dropped on Wednesday, Makarand Deshpande will play Rafiki, the shaman and adviser to Simba. Meiyang Chang, on the other hand, is set to portray Taka, a lion of royal heritage. The film, slated to release on December 20, will explore the early life of the orphaned cub Mufasa and his bond with Taka, who later turns into the former’s rival.
Mahesh Babu is set to voice Mufasa in the Telugu version, with Brahmanandam, Ali, Satyadev and Ayyappa P. Sharma playing Pumbaa, Timon, Taka and Kiros, respectively.
Mahesh was last seen in Trivikram Srinivas’s Guntur Kaaram alongside Sreeleela, Meenakshi Chaudhary and Prakash Raj. Marking the actor’s 28th film, Guntur Kaaram featured soundtracks by Thaman S and cinematography handled by Manoj Paramahamsa.
The Tamil dub will feature Arjun Das as Mufasa, Ashok Selvan as Taka, M Nasser as Kiros, VTV Ganesh as young Rafiki, Singam Puli as Timon and Robo Shankar as Pumbaa.
Mufasa: The Lion King, helmed by Barry Jenkins, is drawn from the 1994 animated classic The Lion King, which was adapted by Jon Favreau in 2019. It explores the origin story of Simba’s father, depicting his journey from an orphaned lion cub to a wise and benevolent leader.
