Updated: March 4, 2024 3:14 PM IST Sonal Kaushal, the voice-over artist, is a prominent part of most people’s childhood. Some people might know her as Doraemon, some as Pikachu and for some, she is Chota Bheem. Sonal Kaushal also widely known as The Motormouth, started her career of dubbing at the age of 8 and has been the voice behind Doraemon since she was 13.
In an exclusive interview with India.com, Sonal Kaushal reveals that becoming a voice-over artist was not planned but an accident.
Going down memory lane, Sonal Kaushal reveals that she started her journey with Doraemon in 2005 when she was 13, with absolutely no idea about what dubbing was. “Mujhe toh us waqt pata bhi nahi that ki dubbing hoti kya hai (She didn’t have any knowledge about dubbing during that time)”. She shares that dubbing is a challenging job and requires you to do many things at a time. Sonal also reveals that the casting director was looking for a different voice and fortunately, she could do that as a kid and that’s what helped her to get the project.
Sonal shares that the casting directors were looking for a robotic voice that is similar to the Japanese voice of Doraemon however, at that time she couldn’t modulate her voice. “Maine audition mein kardia, but when I sat down to record a whole episode I couldn’t sustain that voice.” The team asked her to dub the entire episode in her original voice and later they actually found her original voice of that time better, which became the voice of Doraemon.
Sonal Kaushal highlights the type and diversity of fields in the dubbing industry and how they are different from each other. From voice-over, dubbing to mimicry, there are an array of categories in this particular field with the dubbing artist, being the most challenging role especially dubbing of animated characters. “You have to breathe like that character, especially because animation mein everything is over the top.”
Sonal talks about the evolution in the industry of voice artists and how with the introduction of the OOTD platform, there are a host of opportunities in this field. She also mentions that thankfully now there is a lot of information on the internet. The Kapil Sharma Show has played a major contribution in getting her a lot of eyeballs and recognition in this field, She was one of the guests in one of the shows of Kapil Sharma, where she showed her talent by modulating voices of different cartoon characters and her bit got viral and the rest is history.
Sonal also mentions that Mumbai is the hub for jobs in this field and anyone who has constraints of not moving out, can start by interning or doing a job in the All India Radio station of their state, once they have some experience, they can move to Mumbai for better opportunities. Speaking of the scope of monetisation, Sonal mentions that like every creative industry, the pay also depends on the number of projects but eventually, you can get a handsome amount “Dheere dheere aap thousand se lekar lakhs take paunch sakte ho. (Slowly and eventually you can earn in thousands to lakhs in this field)“
For more insights, watch the full video.
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