Hours alone in a dark studio
Sonal believes anyone who has an interest in mimicry can become a voice artist. However, it will take time to modulate the voice and get the nuances of tone and expression correct. It becomes easier with experience and now Sonal finds it second nature to get into the skin of a character.
There are challenges to the job as well. In 2015, Sonal had taken up a challenging character on Cartoon Network’s Johnny Bravo, where she had to do a lot of screaming and as a result her vocal cords got swollen. Her doctor asked her to rest her voice for 10 days and avoid even humming. Sonal recalls,
I told my doctor that my recordings were already planned for a month. He then explained that if I didn’t take care I could even lose my voice.
From then on Sonal became careful about how much she strained her voice. She is more careful about what she eats and drinks.
Recording is also a lonely job. Spending hours on end in the studio can be difficult initially. Actor Hrithik Roshan had played the role of a blind voice artist in the movie Kaabil. He invited Sonal and a few other voice artists over to his residence in Juhu after the movie was made. He explained to them how it was only during the course of that role that he realised how difficult it is to maintain the energy and consistency in one’s voice, irrespective of what your personal mood might be.
Sonal herself faced a difficult moment when she received the news of the death of a friend in the Pune bomb blasts when she was in the studio and had to record a laughing scene immediately after that. Of course, the team makes a big difference and a good casting director and supportive sound engineers can be a huge help for the voice artists.
The things that money cannot buy
Nowadays thanks to social media, voice and dubbing artists, who used to remain faceless during earlier generations, are finally being recognised. Wherever Sonal goes, she has parents requesting her to speak to their children in Doraemon’s voice.
I had my own moment of maternal happiness when towards the end of our chat, I requested Sonal to speak to my son. She had said yes even before I could finish my request, saying the joyful, excited reaction of children when they speak to her is her biggest satisfaction.
My four-year-old son’s face lit up when he heard his favourite character’s voice on the phone. Since he is young enough to believe that animated characters are real people, there wasn’t even a moment’s hesitation before he started speaking to Sonal like an old friend. “Doraemon.. tum raccoon dog ho na?” he asked mischievously (for the uninitiated, Doraemon hates being mistaken for a raccoon dog). Sonal played along and when she addressed him by name, his excitement knew no bounds. “Doraemon knows my name?!!!” he exclaimed.
Many of us are lucky to have jobs that we love. But very few are blessed enough to spread happiness among our innocent, little ones. The next time you hear the children in your family giggling over the antics of Nobita, as Doraemon tries frantically to help him out of the mess he is in, do spare a thought for the voice artist who spent hours in a recording studio to help make it happen.