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. It becomes easier with experience and now Sonal finds it second nature to get into the skin of a character. However, it will take time to modulate the voice and get the nuances of tone and expression correct. Sonal believes anyone who has an interest in mimicry can become a voice artist. Mandy in The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Mighty Raju (English), Darby in My Friends Tigger and Pooh and Arya Stark in Game of Thrones are just a few of the characters in her kitty. Sonal has dubbed for Amy Jackson in the movie Freaky Ali, and has also done the narration for several advertisements and shows on NDTV Good Times, Fox Traveller, and National Geographic. For Chhota Bheem, the challenge was to match the previous voice artist, which she was able to do justice to. For Doraemon, Sonal had the freedom to create her own style since she was the first voice of the role. Vatsal Dubey was the original artist, followed by Parigna Shah, who had to go off on maternity break. In 2014, Sonal was chosen as the voice of another iconic kiddie favourite-Green Gold Animation’s Chhota Bheem. She has to speak out her lines in such a way that they match the original in tone while also being a close match to the lip movements on screen! When Sonal dubs her lines, she has a screen playing the episode in front of her, a script with her lines, and the original voice-over in Japanese playing on her headphones. However, dubbing for an animated series is not easy, especially for a child. Today Doraemon is the highest-rated kids’ show with 478.5 million viewers and currently airs on Hungama and Disney channels. My mother would get me chocolates and chips and I would have fun recording my lines in the studio. I was chosen for the role, and for me it was like a picnic.

Sonal recalls, I did not realise that Doraemon would become so big. The brief she was given was that she had to sound like a robot. Since Sonal’s mother was a casual announcer for All India Radio in New Delhi, she came to know that UTV was conducting auditions for a Japanese show that would be dubbed in Hindi. Sonal had already anchored a children’s show on Doordarshan and was familiar with voicing work. It was happenstance that took her to the audition for the show. Twenty-five-year-old Sonal has been voicing Doraemon since 2005, when she was just 13. Sonal Kaushal, the voice behind Doraemon.

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