Hear Shah Rukh Khan as Mufasa in the New Hindi Trailer for The Lion King
By Mufasa and Simba in The Lion King remake
Highlights
- The Lion King out July 19 in cinemas in India
- Khan cast as Mufasa for Hindi dub last week
- New trailer contains no new footage from film
Disney India has released a new Hindi-language trailer for its upcoming remake of The Lion King, with Shah Rukh Khan as the voice of Mufasa. Khan’s is the only voice that is heard in the new Lion King Hindi trailer, even as Disney India made five other casting announcements — SRK’s son Aryan Khan as the protagonist Simba, Ashish Vidyarthi as the villain Scar, Shreyas Talpade as the wise-cracking meerkat Timon, Sanjay Mishra as the slow-witted warthog Pumbaa, and Asrani as the red-billed hornbill Zazu — last week. There’s also no new footage since that original English-language trailer from April, and it’s also weirdly cropped from the sides.
The new Lion King Hindi trailer opens with a look at Khan himself in the recording studio, as he voices a line about always being there for his son Simba and calling him the “true king”. Then over footage of the Pride Lands, and Scar and his hyena minions cornering Simba, Khan’s Mufasa seemingly refers to the Hindi version of the circle of life, before giving advice to Simba about how a “true king” should think about what he can do for his people, and not what his people can do for him. In the closing moments of the trailer, Mufasa tells Simba to always remember who he is: a “true king”. Okay we get it, haven’t you said this enough by now?
If you’re wondering why Disney is releasing a two-month old trailer in Hindi now, that’s likely because of the last-minute changes to the Hindi-language voice cast. Kabir Bedi (Khoon Bhari Maang) was initially hired to voice Mufasa, but all evidence of the earlier Hindi-language Lion King trailers has been erased from Disney India’s social channels. And after we reported on one version being still available on Bedi’s Twitter account last week, that has now disappeared as well. It may well be a coincidence, but the timing is peculiar.
Directed by Jon Favreau (The Jungle Book), the English-language version of The Lion King remake features the voice talents of James Earl Jones as Mufasa, Donald Glover as Simba, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Scar, Beyoncé as Nala, 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, and Amy Sedaris.
The Lion King is slated to release July 19 in India in English, Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu.
