Sun, Nov 10, 2024 | Updated 1:42PM IST

Success needs patience, says Jasleen Bhalla

Times of Bennett | Updated: May 22, 2021 12:26
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By Yash Singhal

LUCKNOW: Announcing the next station in Delhi Metro or alerting you to follow Covid protocols when you call someone, her voice has reached millions who listen to her almost daily. Jasleen Bhalla, the voice behind the famous Covid-19 caller tune, is a renowned voice actor with over 10 years of experience.

She was a sports journalist earlier, but then started voiceovers as a part-time job to make her profile but switched to fulltime in 2010. “Over a period of time you realize that it’s not just about good voice. Good voice is only one attribute”, said Jasleen. She maintained that versatility plays a major role as well because you may not have a very good voice texture but the variety of emotions can compensate for that.

“Then comes the ability or sense to understand what the client wants out of you, because they have written a character that doesn’t exist and it’s your job to bring it to life,” added Jasleen. Jasleen has worked in radio ads, TV commercials voice-over, Discovery promos , Nat Geo documentaries, sports channels like ESPN, TenSports and Zsports and in IPL as well.

Podcast also interests Jasleen where she is very active. Voice-over as a career is an interesting field offering a lot of opportunities in India. It is essentially an off-camera commentary over various platforms. People can get famous with their voices and make it a career as well.

Bhalla said that “patience and humility are as important as talent. One should be humble about accepting their weaknesses and should be able to take criticism in the right spirit.” “You will be appreciated and criticized and you have to be your best each and everyday.

Often a 10- seconds line might take you 45 minutes to record and maybe 51 takes till the time the producer doesn’t get what they really want,” Jasleen said, while stressing the importance of patience in this profession. She said that turnaround time of an artist is an asset in cutthroat competition in her profession.

“If you are quick, it’s an added advantage because of the digital age and work from home environment, deadlines are very short,” said Jasleen.

Jasleen Bhalla, Voice actor

(The story first appeared in The Times of Bennett, the lab newspaper produced by the first semester students of The Times School of Media.)