Meet Sonal Kaushal, the voice of Doraemon in India

Sonal Kaushal was all of six years old when she became a voice artist with All India Radio, Delhi. She anchored several shows as well, and by the time she was a teenager she was offered to dub for the popular Japanese Manga-series Doraemon as the title character itself! She has been the voice of Doraemon for 12 years now.

Not only that, Kaushal has dubbed for Blossom in the new rendition of Cartoon Network's Powerpuff Girls. At once she is Chota Bheem and the voice of Arya Stark in Game Of Thrones. I ask her if she finds difficult to relate to animated characters now that she is an adult. She replies in the affirmative, saying the process has only got better.

"Dubbing is quite a difficult process because you are expected to speak, be expressive, modulate your voice and sync it to that of the character's on the screen in front of you - all at the same time!

As a teenager juggling long hours of work alongside her academics was quite the challenge and the process has become less taxing with years," she says.

Kaushal has done her graduation in BCom from Delhi University and she graduated in 2012, coming second in her college. The next year she moved to Mumbai to pursue a full-time career as a voice artist. She works between 10-12 hours a day, moving from one recording studio to another, sometimes not even getting a Sunday off.

"In 2015, I went to an ENT specialist who said that I had stretched my vocal chords so much that I needed to strictly rest my voice for at least 10 days. When I tried explaining to him that I had already committed my time to studios, he warned that I might have to get a surgery otherwise," she adds.

"There is nothing more satisfying than realising that what you do brings happiness to the lives of so many children."

In that sense, dubbing is also quite a solitary profession because it involves talking at a screen for hours on end. How does she keep herself inspired?

Kaushal, who has also done television commercials and jingles in 11 languages says, "I have kids calling me from all over the country wanting to speak to Doraemon. There is nothing more satisfying than realising that what you do brings happiness to the lives of so many children."

Sonal Kaushal wants to pursue acting someday but right now she enjoys having a job that she loves doing.

Read More by Amrita Paul