A new show by voice artiste Sonal Kaushal aims to shed light on the voice acting industry of India. She invites guests who have left a notable mark
Doraemon and Nobita in film Stand By Me. Pics courtesy/Youtube
In 2005, when a 13-year-old was offered a job to dub for a classic cartoon show that used to air in Japan, she didn’t think much of it. “It was screened in Japan in the late 1970s, and India was watching the same show in 2005. The quality of the clips was not great; I didn’t think people would like it,” recalls voice artiste Sonal Kaushal. Nearly 20 years later, the show remains a favourite among not only the current generation of children but even adults who have grown up watching it. “Doraemon stayed with people for its visuals, storytelling, characters, dialogues…” agrees Kaushal, the dubbing artiste who gave the 22nd century robot its first voice in Hindi.
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In an episode of her new podcast, The Motor Mouth Show, she sits across Meghana Erande, a veteran voice artiste, with over 35 years of experience in the industry, and the latest voice for Doraemon. “We have in this episode the first [herself] and the last voice [Erande] of Doraemon,” Kaushal introduces Erande, who is also the voice behind Ninja Hattori, Noddy, Officer Jenny in Pokémon, Wednesday in Addams Family and over 50 other famous cartoon shows and movies. Other guests include voice artiste Sanket Mhatre, Bollywood mimicry artiste Sumedh Shinde, YouTubers Mithilesh Patankar and Urmila Lawekar, and voice artiste for Nobita — Simran Kaur.
The show features voice artistes behind famous characters like Noddy, Ninja Hattori among others
“I used to invite voice artistes for interviews to my YouTube channel a few years ago. But I stopped doing that because of the lockdown, which is also when I got married, and then my job kept me busy,” reveals Kaushal, who moved to Mumbai from Delhi in search of more opportunities in the field as a 22-year-old. “The idea was to bring the faces behind cartoons and international movies that we have grown up watching to the fore. As someone who belongs to this generation, I know the power of social media and how to use it to my advantage. Hence, I began this show,” she says.
Chhota Bheem
The episodes are a mix of humorous anecdotes from behind the scenes of our favourite cartoons and movies, and live performances and rapid-fire rounds for doing as many voices as the guests and the host can. In the first episode, Kaur and Kaushal recreated a scene from the film Stand by Me, where Doraemon has to leave Nobita and go back to his world, because his mission was now complete. “I remember performing this sequence in the studio nearly seven years ago. I couldn’t stop myself from crying. I was hiding my face in the studio in the fear that people might find it odd that I am crying for a cartoon. When we performed it live for the podcast, we were flooded with comments about how viewers also got teary-eyed. If you’re even slightly connected to the cartoon, the episode is bound to touch your heart,” she says.
Sonal Kaushal gave the first voice to Doraemon in Hindi; (right) Meghana Erande also dubbed for the famous character in Hindi and Marathi
In another episode, Shinde shows how with small moderations in tone, bass and treble, he can jump from Kartik Aryan’s voice, to John Abraham, Pankaj Tripathi and Ranveer Singh’s voice. In the latest one with Erande, the voice actor shows how one can add their own flavour while dubbing for various characters.
“Unlike acting, where you have your body, hair, make-up and set supporting your performance, in voice acting, the only tool you have is your voice. But we have a clean working environment, where everyone knows the other, and even after 35 years of being a part of it, I still give auditions for every role. So, if you’re planning to pursue it, keep practising. This industry is booming in India, with a lot to offer,” Erande signs off.
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