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Vineet
Hello and welcome back to Photosynthesis individuals podcast where we are talking to some of the most creative people I’ve ever met. So this is a lovely journey for me. From across India, where we talk about the skills, the art, the culture, the business of well, so far we’ve mostly been done doing.
Tanya Nambiar
Thank you.
Vineet
photography and videography. But now today I have with us a voiceover artist. I’m very excited. First time we’re actually speaking to a professional voiceover artist. We have with us Tanya Nambiar. She’s basically a fairly dynamic force. She’s a voiceover artist. She’s an anchor, pop singer, songwriter, entrepreneur, mother, worked in sales and marketing, left the corporate world to do all this. And it’s been a fair bit of a journey. She’s
Tanya Nambiar
Thank you.
Vineet
work with brands like Kwality Walls, Zomato, Urban Company, Nescafe, many, many more. I will cut short the intro here because otherwise I’ll keep going on. Hi Tanya, welcome to the show.
tanya nambiar
I thank you for having me. I’m very excited to be here.
Vineet
very excited to have you on the show. I want to actually start like what makes for a voiceover artist? How did you get here? What was your journey like?
Tanya Nambiar
So, I mean, I’d break that up in two parts. Like, the first part is what is a voiceover artist? Most people think that I have a unique texture or I have a very deep and baritone kind of voice, so I can become a voiceover artist because they’re like, that’s all. That’s what people think it is. But it is voice acting. Even if you are doing mostly corporate voiceovers and documentaries, you’re acting like a narrator. So it is a voice acting role that you take up.
So you may have a great unique voice texture or a very unique voice, but you should be able to emote through your voice. And that’s where a voice actor comes in. So it’s a skill set required that you shouldn’t, it shouldn’t sound like you’re reading out something. People should be able to understand what the emotion is, whatever you’re trying to speak. So that’s what a voiceover artist does. And under that realm, there are so many sub genres. We have animation, you know, like animated films, we have dubbing.
We have digital ads, television ads. If you’re a singer, you could also get into jingles and then your narration, documentaries, all of this. So there’s like a lot of sub -genres under a voiceover realm. And I literally sort of stumbled upon this because I was a singer. I love my sales job. So I was handing magazines and I was a corporate sales manager and I was loving my job, independent. And then I wanted to give…
music a shot actually. But the moment I got into music, I very quickly realized that it’s a seasonal profession. I can’t be singing 365 days a year. So what do I do when I don’t have shows? Because I quit a job, I had kept, you know, kept savings for a year saying I’ll give this a shot. And if it doesn’t work out, I’ll go back to a job. My parents were very supportive. Because they were like, whatever you do, give it at least 200, 300%. Like, don’t do it half heartedly.
So for me, I was like, okay, but what else do I do when I’m not singing? I can’t be singing 365 days a year. So that’s when voiceovers I really stumbled upon. I kind of did my research on what the industry is all about. And this was like 10 years ago when we didn’t have all of these resources. Now it’s, I mean, nowadays I feel people can be anything they want to be because of the tools and resources at their disposal. So yeah, so I would just be, you know, I would like, and always as a kid, I’ve always read out things, you know, like just brought.
Tanya Nambiar
Live to text so whatever I would see I would always read it out loud because there’s a very there’s a lot of difference between your head voice and the voice that actually comes out So I was always so I think fascinated by the microphone. So whether it’s singing or voiceovers I just wanted to be around it and that’s how I sort of stumbled upon voiceovers I would take up whatever gig came my way You know should have met that you’re doing it for free because you just want to add that stuff to your portfolio I would whatever I had a basic phone and I would just kind of record voice notes
and create that as samples and send it to production houses. So many emails, so many calls rejected, but I kept at it and there’s been no looking back.
Vineet
And so a lot of questions to unpack from these two minutes actually. So it is acting, you’re right. And this is an area, so we run a production house 2 .0 sort of thing. So we work with a lot of brands for ads and stuff. And I have been guilty of this myself. I just assume a voiceover artist would get the script. And initially, like they would ask me questions. I’m like, why do they need to know this? They’re like, of course they need to know this. Of course they need to know this. It is acting. They need the right tone, right?
I learned that very very early on I think. So how do you get into the right frame? How do you figure out, okay this needs a more, you know, soothing tone, this needs a more energetic tone, what kind of questions do you ask and how, what’s the process like?
Tanya Nambiar
So it’s been a long journey. So now after almost a decade of doing this, you kind of have an understanding of before even the client approaches you with the brief, you kind of know where this is going. But of course, you know, initially you’re just taking the client brief and they’d be like, but then at the end of the day, advertising or digital films, they do fall under certain brackets. So there is a sort of a skeleton framework that is there on which you’re sort of, you know, working around.
So on the basis of that, you kind of figure it out. So you know like a corporate voiceover, you know, for a corporate brand, the film will have a certain kind of a voiceover. A digital ad for your social media, YouTube, if you’re doing like a six -second ad, you know the tone will be different because you have to quickly convey that message with the right emotions in six seconds. Six seconds is all because before you move on to the next video, you can’t even skip that ad. So people are like, okay, so your voiceover better convey the message.
Vineet
Yes.
tanya nambiar
If it’s a 15 seconder for an Instagram or like a 30 seconder, then you know you have a little more room to play around with. You can have a little more expressive voice. So all of this, I think, comes with experience now that you’ve been doing it for long enough. But yeah, there are certain frameworks we work along. But we kind of understand a corporate, a documentary would have a different style of voiceover. If you look at stuff like National Geographic and Discovery Channel, there’s a different kind of narration that happens in that.
So it’s also a lot of observation. I’ve always been fascinated by voices. You know, as a kid, I would be so like in the 90s when there was no electricity, you would call up the, you know, the electricity board and they’d be like, and then this very nasal voice. And I was just so fast. I was like, they made a better voice over that. I was always so fascinated. And now I am doing IVR recordings, which is also part of voiceovers, you know, when you call up a toll free number and you hear that voice.
A lot of times it’s pre -recorded by voiceover artists and I’ve done that for many brands. So it’s…
Vineet
Like for example, I used to keep noticing the Delhi Metro voice. And funny story, so this friend of mine told me that the uncle who did the voice, right? So he was my friend’s father. He’s like whenever I would go to their house and I would hear his voice in natural and it just felt so disconcerting to hear the Delhi Metro voice.
Tanya Nambiar
See ya.
Tanya Nambiar
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, those are iconic voices, which, you know, the moment you hear that in real life, you’re just like blown away. You know, and basically for me, the fact that I started putting a face to this because people didn’t know I did voiceovers because it was like, I would be singing and then I would also do this. And I was also anchoring, juggling all these roles. And then I was just like, you know, COVID, I was like, I want to showcase people that this is also what I do and put a face to it.
There’s so many, this is a booming industry right now. Of course people are like, you know, there are pros and cons for everything. It’s a very difficult industry to sort of get into. But I really had to do my research on it and understand, you know, as a voiceover artist, I tell most budding artists, understand what your voice is. You know, don’t try and copy. Even if you want to copy your voice, there’s a section for that, which is mimicry. You fall under, you know, a lot of radio ads will have this Amitabh Bachchan style voiceover.
or a Hema Malini style voiceover. There’s also a role and space in the industry for people who can do mimicry of these artists. But I had to really understand, it’s taken a while to understand what my voice is, what are the textures and tones I can play around with, what am I good at? I’m not really good at doing a lot of animated voices, but my brother who’s a voiceover artist is great at that. He can do a lot of character voices. I’m more good with like a more, I have a heavier, more textured voice. So.
You kind of have to understand what your skill set is and work around that. Instead of just being like, ha ha, I can just read it. Which is what most people have this approach about this industry.
Vineet
So skill set, I’m going to ask you that this is a debate that I keep having with. So some things are skills, right, that you train for. So like guitar, nobody’s born with a guitar playing hands, right? But singing, how much of it is inborn? How much of it is training? How much of it is a skill you can pick up? How much of it is just, yeah, actually I don’t know the fourth.
Tanya Nambiar
You need to have your basic sare gamma in place at least. I actually shared it on my story a couple of days ago. I saw this thing, I think it was Britain’s Got Talent or America’s Got Talent and basically Harry Styles is in that doing an audition and he’s singing completely off key. And like he’s right now the biggest pop artist, right? So, and it’s completely off key.
Vineet
Yes, you can be tuned that, you can be tuned.
Vineet
Sorry, sorry. Just on that note, Ed Sheeran last month shared a video on his profile from I think an audition in 2014, a song he released in 2014 or 15.
Tanya Nambiar
Yes. Yes.
Tanya Nambiar
Yeah, he had a voice note that he had played and it was like, completely wrong. So I think you don’t need to have a basic skill set. And then, of course, anything, if you put your mind to it and you train and get the right sort of mentoring, it can be worked on. And same goes for voice actors or even actors in general. You can work on it. You need to have the right sort of mentorship and the guidance.
Vineet
yeah.
Tanya Nambiar
But yeah, like there should be a certain natural skill to hair like can’t have somebody who cannot like let’s say my husband, he can’t when I try to get him to do something. He’s just like, it sounds like he’s reading now. Maybe if I really sit down with him for hours and hours, you know, because he’s not a voiceover artist. So a lot of people cannot, you know, do that. But you have to have, I think, a basic skill set that little flair, natural sort of, you know, how you throw your voice and that little bit should be there. You know, but again,
You never know, some people can be trained right from zero to the start, but I haven’t come across anything like that. But I think a basic skill set is required and then you move forward.
Vineet
And also is it even training for this or even the… Okay, are there people who you hear and you say, you should be a voiceover artist? Is that like just the result of having a very deep voice? No, is it unique or is it a deep voice? Is there scope for all kinds of voiceover artists, even high -pitched, low -pitched, everything? Or do the same people end up doing everything?
Tanya Nambiar
you sound very neat.
Vineet
Are there different people specializing in these things? What do you think?
Tanya Nambiar
Yeah. So, you know, like lately since my Instagram sort of has been like blowing up because of these reels have been doing really well, they’re actually putting up behind the scenes. I’ve been getting like random people sending me voice notes. Ma ‘am, please I want to audition. I don’t know. I’m like, I’m not running a company. So I’m not, but when I’m bored, I sometimes listen to those voice notes and sometimes I’m like, wow, that’s a good voice. But again, there’s no, whatever they’re saying is just sound like it’s being read and there’s no, you know, sort of.
flair to how you’re doing it and stuff like that. So I think, yeah, I mean, sometimes I hear somebody, I’m like, my God, you sound really, really good. But, you know, and some people I feel can get that training and, you know, whatever, but again, totally depends, you know, if people want to put in that effort and sort of really go for it.
Vineet
Yeah, now that’s interesting. And what are the elements involved? So there’s mimicry is a separate, completely different skill or is it somehow? Are you good at mimicry?
tanya nambiar
So as I said, it’s voiceovers, then you have dubbing. So like, let’s say in the beginning, Katrina Kaif was not using her real voice. We had somebody dubbing her voice. When you have all these foreign actresses coming to Bollywood, we have dub artists. Also sometimes when you do digital ads, a lot of times they don’t use the actor’s voice. We’ve been doing these voiceovers for that. So you have dubbing, you have mimicry, you find a lot of ads, especially radio spots.
In the property you’ll have this Amitabh Bachchan ka, kharidhiye ye property. You’ll have those kind of voiceovers which happen a lot in radio ads. Actually one listens to it. So there’s also space for this mimicry artist. I mean now you even have these mimicry artists on comedy shows, on television and stuff like that. And as I said then you have the segment of digital ads, television ads. And I think the biggest hurdle for me has been to be away from the hub of voiceovers and be doing it all in Delhi. Like I’m not in Bombay.
I feel like I wouldn’t be a millionaire by now if I wasn’t for me, but I’m away from the hub of this. So I still feel like an outsider.
Vineet
Yeah, but you would also be broke because of living in Bombay, right? So you would not be a millionaire.
tanya nambiar
I know exactly yeah I’m very happy and I was very like and I’m the kind of person if somebody says no you know you should shift there if you want to do it better and then I’m just like no I’m gonna make this happen sitting right over here I don’t want to move from my place but yeah like I think being doing I’ve been doing this for so long but I still feel like an outsider in the industry because I’m not part of the main circuit there and I’ve made peace with what I can pull my way so maybe I’m not doing a lot of dubbing work and all of that but I’ve been able to pull it.
digital ads my way, corporate brands my way, you know, television ads my way, whatever I can. I’ve understood the realm I can work around and I’ve been doing that. And I think as a, I keep telling people, especially as a freelance artist, you need to kind of understand that you can’t be cocky about it, that, I’m the best at this, that you have to understand the drowns you’re working within and sort of make your way through.
Vineet
So remote work. You are completely into remote work. How does that, how would like being in Bombay impact your life? You would go out for meetings with agencies more, but aren’t meeting online anyhow? Like we run a remote company and we’re like very happy. Like how does it impact your life?
Tanya Nambiar
In Bombay, the industrial works are very different ways. So they’ll suddenly get a call from the studio. Like a studio will have a bunch of voiceover artists they’re working with or production houses. And they’ll be like, because a lot of the times clients want to sit in on the recording session. They want to be a part of it because if you’re giving those inputs, they want to be like, hey, stop, say this, say this, say this. Which can also be very intrusive, but sometimes it’s the client. Client is right. So you’ve got to do what the client wants. And yeah, so in.
In Bombay, it’s 12 at night, we have dubbing, live show, product launch. That’s how it works there. But here, as I said, now, I think especially post -COVID, we understood the importance that a lot of work, even corporate work can be done in a remote way. And for me, as I said, initially, I think I was tying up with radio companies and these radio stations and I would just take whatever project that comes. Because there’s a lot of time to get it done in -house. But sometimes, you’re not getting that kind of voice. So…
I would be on like a standby and I’ll be like, yeah, I’ll come and do this line or, you know, I’ll do this voiceover. Slowly then started understanding how is, you know, what is the way to work around it? I started contacting production houses. I have done since so many cold emails calls because I’m, I’m a salesperson through and through. And I think this is what I get a little irritated with today’s generation. Also people who want to like, they’ll just message me because they’ve never seen, or probably now like they have.
Social media makes access very easy, right? So I’ll just get these DMs. Hi, I want to become a voiceover artist. Please give me my contacts. Why would I give you contacts that I’ve been developing for 10 years? And I was like, I did research when we didn’t have those many tools. Now you have anything. You literally have people making YouTube videos on how to become XYZ. You want to become a graphic designer, you can start like this. You want to become this, whatever you want to become. You want to become an architect. There are online courses for that. There’s literally a course for anything and everything. And people…
Vineet
I mean I learnt how to play the guitar off the internet in 1999. I just cleaned myself.
tanya nambiar
Exactly. And I just tell people, you just have to open your search engine and I said type in Google how to become a voiceover artist. And then people are like, you’re being rude. I’m like, I’m not being rude, but you don’t want to do it. You’re putting the work and why should someone use work for taking it?
Vineet
Give me free advice, free information. I demand it. And if you don’t give it to me right now, you are being…
Tanya Nambiar
And that’s what social media has made people like that, that I demand an answer because you are in this. I’m here to earn my bread and butter, not to, you know, I’m not here to put it on a platter and give it to you. So that’s why I think that doing that research is very important and I feel like when you really put in that hard work and effort and you really understand what all goes into it. So it’s, you know, like everybody’s like bedkating online, you know, you’re literally sitting, especially if you’re doing like long…
like I’ve done voiceovers for museums. So you know when you go to a museum and you have those, when you put in your headphones, they’re explaining to you about what you’re looking at. I’ve done those kind of voiceovers. I’ve done… So you’re sitting without a fan, AC, nothing, especially in your studio setup. And so now that I’ve set up, you know, the past couple of years I’ve had a home set up. Otherwise I used to like rush to the studio because I wanted to be practical about it. I just didn’t want to blow up money and set up my own…
Vineet
We need to get into that. We need to get into that.
Tanya Nambiar
little studio and you know, I wanted to be sure that yes, I am getting enough work. It’s not a one time gig. And this is something I can look at as a long time full time career. Because let’s be honest, like entertainment does have a shelf life in especially if you’re a singer or an actor. Unfortunately, they you do have a shelf life with age. They do say that I mean, now things are changing. But yeah, so I just want to be sure that this is a career which you know, again, my age doesn’t matter in this. I could look like whatever I could put on.
30 kilos or not, it doesn’t matter what I look like, they just want my voice. So if I catch a cold, that’s when I’m screwed. So I cannot afford to fall sick. But yeah, that’s why I decided that okay, fine, enough going to studios and rushing, let me just set up a home setup. I’ll offer people a faster turnaround time and sort of that’s how I worked around it.
Vineet
And what’s your setup like, if you don’t mind talking about it, like technically for a second, what kind of setup do you have at home? How complex is it? Is it a mic, like a great mic or is it more?
Tanya Nambiar
So literally to do a voiceover you need your sound card, you need a microphone especially now it’s great because you have a whole variety of microphones you know condenser microphones ranging from anything from like 2k to like going up to 40 -50 thousand you know and when people say okay can you tell me what kind of mic should I pick up and I said there are YouTube videos there are gadget gurus and these technical gurus are literally giving you
advice on what to pick up. So microphone, a sound card, a laptop or a desktop, whatever you’re working with, good quality headphones, and that’s it. And there’s software too. So FS2 .io or Audacity is a free software. So and then you’re good to go.
Vineet
That’s not bad. And how has tech in general, has it impacted things? So bit of a story, we have also, God, I’m sounding already sounding guilty about this. We’ve also experimented with AI voices. And I’ll tell you why to get into it. Like, so we have, we do complex videos, we do simple videos, and we were like, you know, for the simple video, which is just like a cut right off a larger project, the client also doesn’t really want a very complex thing. We were like, let’s try it out.
Tanya Nambiar
Yes.
Vineet
And absolutely for scratch VOs. Right. Because exactly, exactly. So, you know, we decided that once we do the final, once we have a final approval from the client, then we’ll get the professional voiceover done. But scratch VOs, let’s use AI. On both fronts, we failed at, we crashed and burned. We crashed and burned so badly that in one month it was like, okay, who in the company can I train to do scratch vo? And there is no going back to this because A, it was just.
Tanya Nambiar
Yeah. Okay. Like please.
Tanya Nambiar
Yeah. Yeah.
Vineet
too much more work. And B, it was just so, and I’ve tried some 20 tools on the market. It was just so flat, emotionless, garbled in places. I think this just turned into a rant, but yeah, what’s your thought? Have you, has it affected your business, your work in any way?
tanya nambiar
Yeah.
Tanya Nambiar
So I remember there was this one reel of mine that sort of went kind of blew up and I was just like so many comments I think got like it was a thing for Zomato and it got like some six million reviews or something and suddenly the comments were like, AI is coming for your job, AI is coming for your job, AI is coming for your job, you know, all of this because like people love to diss on something they see doing well. And I was like, a lot of people ask me even when I do interviews, they’re like, okay, AI is taking over all of that, which is.
It’s great. But the only thing is that as voiceover artists, when we do, when we sit with a client, they’ll be like, put a pressure on this voice. And if you can smile and do this, or if you can, you know, something like that, they’ll say something like that. And how do you do that in AI, you know, you can’t, you can’t sit and like, be like, okay, can you break it over here, pause over here, put a stress over here, all of that, you cannot, it’s impossible to.
sort of do that. So I think that maybe 20 years down the line, if it is, if AI can get there, great. But as of now, it sounds very, I can tell what an AI voice sounds like. You know, even when they do these Modi Ji voiceovers in this style, and again, very popular Bollywood stars, they have been able to do it in AI, but it still sounds very, very robotic. You can tell because you can’t, there is a certain, you know, a voiceover can pause here, crack. Like let’s say I’m saying a line like,
Okay, let me see. Okay. Buy this for 50, get this at 50 % off. Okay. And the client’s like, can you just pause and put 50 pay with a smile? Get this at 50 % off. How do you do that in AI? You know, so there’s these slight nuances, which you can only do with a real person. What is an AI can only do a simple straight style, maybe angry voice, all of that, but that halkate, which we call it, you know, that you can’t do it through AI. So I’m pretty safe.
Vineet
So for example, one experiment with Murph was, Murph is the most popular one right now and they have Indian voices also. The script says live in over 100 cities and the AI keeps saying live in over 100 cities. This is not an apartment complex, they’re not a builder. And then it offers the, you know, you can change the, you can say pronounce it this way and whatnot. It has those Greek characters where.
Tanya Nambiar
Yeah. Yeah.
Tanya Nambiar
Yeah.
tanya nambiar
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Vineet
You know, you know how, you know better, right? And the result was in over a hundred cities and I’m not even exaggerating, just completely gobbled mess as a result of it. I’m like, yeah, this is very far away. And one of my team members, Soumya, she would then spend four hours putting a two minute, three minute video together. And I’m like, why are we doing this? Let’s go back to real people, even for the scratch, even for the first, everything. This makes no sense. Maybe in a few years, let’s see. But.
Tanya Nambiar
Yeah.
tanya nambiar
Yeah. Yeah.
And then when I get voiceovers, the client is like, we put an AI placeholder voice, but can you please, this is a tone. I was like, I cannot get any tone because this is like, and when I do it like that, they’re like, no, it’s sounding very robotic. So I said, stop comparing me to an AI.
Vineet
That also happened. So for a couple of clients where there was no obvious mistakes, we send the first cut saying very clearly, this is an AI generated voice. The actual will be done by a professional. We will get your approval, but just to see the visuals. But the feedback would be bad because there is no emotion. So the whole video is getting ruined by it. God, my co -founders are going to be so mad at me for saying this. Yeah. That’s where we are.
Tanya Nambiar
Yeah.
Tanya Nambiar
Thank you.
Tanya Nambiar
It does, it makes a difference. I feel like, yeah, it is, I mean, we have time for that, not yet. I mean, I’m sure maybe it gets perfected 20 years down the line, but right now, yeah, I cannot do it.
Vineet
They’re using a lot of AI in certain things, but in everything, the philosophy is generally, you know, use it to speed up things, use it as a productivity tool, use it with a smart person on top. It cannot replace people. I haven’t seen a single area where you can replace people right now in any way. Yeah. Museums. Let’s go back to that. What museum was this?
Tanya Nambiar
Yeah, you’re not.
Vineet
How and what was your approach to this? Just a very, very interesting sidebar. What museum was this?
Tanya Nambiar
So we’re not, this is part of something called FOPON TOURS. So they only kind of approached me and we’ve been doing these voiceovers for the museums and a lot of things. Like even, I mean, it was like the longest format. And then I remember I’ve done these meditation videos also, I’m not allowed to name that brand, but yeah, we did these meditation, sleep meditation videos. So these are the longer format voiceovers which can go. And then I’ve done e -learning for like, you know, kids, little kids, where I was like, eh, it’s fun.
Apple, you know, so these longer ones really like it takes like a like right now also I’m sweating it’s 42 degrees in Delhi. I’m sitting without the AC, if I put the AC on, the sound will go. But I’m so used to being as a voiceover artist so we’re always like if I come out of a voiceover recording my dearies are like were you working out? I was like no I was recording. It’s so hot in Delhi.
Vineet
Yeah, yeah, I’m going on there and I’m like, I know it will probably make its way into the audio, but I don’t care. No, I’m not saying that.
Tanya Nambiar
Yeah, like I can’t have the fact. So yeah, so they automatically like, you know, for me, I said, I’ve been a very proactive person because I’m like, I’m the kind of person and I apply this to all my professions, singing, anchoring, voiceovers, my business. If an opportunity is not coming my way, I’m going to go and create that opportunity or sort of go and grab it. And then I’ll get down to, as I said, being like emails, introducing myself even till like now it’s been a decade. But let’s say tomorrow things go down south and I have to again,
starting those cold calls and cold emails, I will do that. I don’t shy away because I have to put food on the table. I want that work. I’m so passionate about it. And I feel like, you know, before, and I see this with a lot of artists, that humbleness, that humility sort of goes away, which shouldn’t be the case. So for me, it’s like these museums thing I had approached during COVID time, because I’d lost a lot of singing shows. And that’s when really I saw this.
surge of voiceovers because everybody was putting out ads saying we are safe order from us and this that and you know all these brands were working like that and that’s when my voice was really sort of you know took off and because I was not singing I couldn’t you know speak lockdown and so this is when I started doing voiceovers and it was a blessing that I was able to earn during that time and people were and that’s what I had really done so I think there was one day I had sent
175 emails in one day to just every production house. And I’d already been doing voiceovers for a couple of years. So if I had to be coffee, I’d be like, I’m not doing that. Let work come to me. But I knew I had to, like, this was like time to take action. And that’s it.
Vineet
I was approaching this question from the, okay, this sounds like crazy interesting. Tell me more. Not like, this sounds very interesting. Like, so yeah, it sounds like good work.
Tanya Nambiar
If.
Tanya Nambiar
Yeah, so I literally just send, I was like, what all use voiceovers? Museums, this, that, you know, where have I heard voices? Like, so I literally sort of did just sat in a Google, Google check this, that, contacted production houses, sent some emails were bouncing back. Some people, the companies were shut down, but I just like sent out whatever. And then it’s like, once you plant the seeds, then you sort of wait for the little seedlings to start coming out. And that’s how.
you know, then somebody refers you to someone and then I sit on Facebook groups and looking for jobs and literally that’s how I fit this variety of clients that I have. So it’s not just digital ads or television ads. I’ve done e -learning, I’ve done, you know, sleep meditation videos, yoga videos, you know, these pre -primary school kids videos. And I’m so, I love doing voiceovers. I like, you know, after being, taking on a role as a singer where you’re center stage, it’s nice to do something which is like backstage and nobody can, you just hear your voice. I think that’s.
It’s quite fascinating. So I enjoy that. And it was fun. The museum thing was like a good gig. It was really interesting. I learned a lot. I went back to my history days, like learning about different things.
Vineet
And.
Vineet
Yeah. So, one takeaway from this is also that there’s so many different kinds of work, right? It’s not just, we will do ads. There’s so many different things going on. Where do you see it going? Like what’s improving? What’s quieting down? Like where’s the industry heading? Which direction is work for you heading in?
Tanya Nambiar
Now, you know, even when I look at my client base, like if I look at the my kind of clients, it’s not maybe like 50, let’s say 50 % of big brands, your big FMCGs and your big companies and, you know, electronic brands and all of these automobile 50 % is also your small to medium brands who are capitalizing on the digital ads and realizing that a good voiceover, a good ad, if I do a, you know, like a
I’ll put this ad on like a sponsored post or to Instagram and Facebook like this. And they realize the importance that I’m doing so many small or medium, small to mid -sized company voiceovers. You know, this could be startups, these could be like new companies. And they realize the importance of, you know, also like right now, because we have a lot of videographers, young people coming to this line, like, you know, especially videographers, photographers, they can put together, the young people are really good at technology. So they’re able to like…
Everybody’s learning online as well, you know, like how to like direct edit videos. So they’re doing that. And then you put a good voiceover on that. You’re able to do a nice crisp ad without spending a huge budget like you do in television ads, right? You are taking advantage of the digital space. So you don’t have to, even if you don’t put your ad on YouTube, you can do a Facebook ad or Instagram or just your post. It’s a nice, you know, people are taking advantage of that. And, and that’s what I’ve seen this huge rise from small and mid -sized companies as well who are doing.
So it’s like this huge variety of brands and companies are doing voiceovers. They understood the importance of a good voice. Earlier when you would call up a lot of toll -free numbers, you would get this deadpan, you know, like press one for English. Yeah. And anyway, when a customer calls a toll -free number, I want to sell companies. You’re anyway so irritated. The last thing you want to hear is this robotic voice.
Vineet
Please look carefully.
Tanya Nambiar
you know, I’d like saying please press one. You are next in line. And people don’t like it.
Vineet
or we could just implemented xotel today itself and just putting down an action point that is a good point, we cannot just let them do the voice, that is a very good point.
Tanya Nambiar
Yeah. Yeah. It makes a huge difference. So I think their voices can be, I literally that day did a recording for a headphone brand. It was a small company and they just wanted, they said, I saw your Instagram and this that and it proves me. And I was like, work is work. I don’t look at a big or small company. And if you can like pay for my services, I’ll do it. And literally I had to say Bluetooth off, Bluetooth on, and connected. And.
Vineet
Very good.
Tanya Nambiar
Now, because you have headphones, I’m also a voiceover. I was a voiceover. I never, never did I imagine when I started that I would be doing a voiceover for, you know, headphones and earphones and literally power off, battery low, disconnect. It was very cool. Like, I mean, yeah, video games. There’s, there’s a whole. Like that day somebody sent me a planning tool. This is a new real estate and they want a lift, a voiceover for the lift for the elevator. You are on 11th floor.
Vineet (
That’s really cool.
Tanya Nambiar
you are on the turf in some luxury thing. I was like, sure, I’d love to do that. Like, wow, I saw this elevator, like so cool. So I think the options are endless where again, a good voice, you want to pick something, you want to make something welcoming, you know, you put a voice over there. So I think the options are endless. And it’s a it’s an industry which is in the long run. I don’t think, you know, if there are like, maybe five years down, I don’t know what will happen. It’s there. So.
Vineet
with that.
tanya nambiar
Just keep going, I’m at it. I don’t, I don’t, I mean, I would want to retire. I mean, even when I’m 80, I’d like to go in old ladies’ voice, but I’m going to continue this. Like, I’m not stopping.
Vineet
And so one question I’m going to come back on when you mentioned budgets. Now obviously I’m not going to get into pricing and all and numbers and all, but how do you price yourself? How do you figure out to get your value as a creator? Like look, I’m doing good work for you. Right. I deserve this. Versus, okay, I’m free for the next three days. I could do this. What is the, because you’re also a corporate person before coming here. So I think this is a more relevant. You got.
Tanya Nambiar
Yeah. Yeah.
Vineet
I would assume you have thought about this more than the average creator who is more on the right brain side of things, only on the right brain side of things. Right. How do you figure out this? Like, how am I going to answer this question about price without getting into numbers, but what’s the process?
Tanya Nambiar
Yeah. So A, when you’re starting off the industry, pays peanuts like any other industry, you know, you’re an actor, you go to Bombay, you just be like, just to stand in the background, also you get X, Y, Z, whatever. So this was something that initially, I had no idea how the pricing works. So it’s like, how do you do it per word? Do you do it education wise? How do you like figure out what is the, what do you charge? And because it is time, it is effort, even if I’m going to a studio, so I’m a beginner.
Somebody likes my voice. I used to go up to the studio. I was paying 100 rupees by auto. Whatever. There’s a lot of work. Then you pay 1000 rupees to the studio. You have to block the studio for an hour. How do you calculate all these costs? So I think initially I was just going by whatever was coming my way. And then as I said, I used to do a lot of research because I was so hungry for work. So I would go on… There were these Facebook groups that time. I’m talking about like eight years before. There were these Facebook groups and they would be like, okay, we’re looking to do this.
and this is what we’re going to pay. And I would just double the amount because I’m like, I’m better than that. Because the guy posting it, there were so many spelling errors in that job requirement only. I’m like, no, screw this. So I took a sort of ballpark figure from there, kind of doubled it. And I was like, initially just to get lots of work. And once you understand your work, you sort of work upwards. And then I would listen to a lot of artists. I would like, as I said, after being a lot of search artists, I would make a rate sheet. So as voiceover artists, we charge, it’s the only job.
where you get paid per second, which is amazing. So I charge per, I mean, getting paid to talk per second is amazing. So I mean, I would charge for six seconds, up to 12 seconds. Now I know, because people do, you know, when you ask, a client comes, I’ll be like, is it a digital ad or a television ad? Because with television ad, you have rights, you know, two years rights or three years rights, so you charge, it’s a much bigger chunk that you charge. For a digital ad, you have smaller budgets, but you, you know, depending on how big or junior of an artist you are.
Corporate films have a different kind of budgeting. The bigger the brand, the lesser the budget. All of these in most cases, especially for corporate films. So they’re like, budget nahi hai, par top quality voice chahiye, you know, just every brand ever. So corporate films have a different kind of budgeting. So it’s really, as I said, taken years to understand the framework. And then also like, because my brother’s also a voiceover artist and I would like pitch to clients saying, you know, you get male and female. I have to make everything a business, you know, so that’s the salesperson in me. So.
Tanya Nambiar
So when we do like work with brands like Zomato, Urban Company, Amazon, Chuck Content Heavy, we would charge a monthly retainer. But I would be like, I’ll charge you XMR and I will do these many more so it was for you. So that’s how I’ve also worked in the past, but otherwise you usually work out a duration up to six seconds, up to 12 seconds. So figure out what is there in the industry, what is the current rate. If you’re starting out, go with that, don’t be copy and then sort of move upwards. And…
You see, if people are willing to pay for your work and your work is good, you’ll automatically know, okay, this is where I will take my pricing up to. You know, I’ve been in the industry for a few years. I’ll hype it up by 20%, 25%. You automatically see depending on how much work you’re getting and if people are negotiating, because a lot of times, you know, when a client agrees very instantly, you’re like, did I charge too less? I should have said more, you know? Yeah, initially that, you know, I would say this and I was just like, the client said like, yes, in one minute. So I was like, maybe I’m like charging too less.
So those are the kind of things I really sort of worked on, sat down and made a quotation and then I started charging accordingly. And I think that’s how people should really understand your work, see first what the market is offering and then sort of figure out your place in the industry and then sort of move forward.
Vineet
Yeah, because we in fact just had a bit of a problem trying to figure out pricing for vo because again, not because of the cost. It’s just like we had, you mentioned digital ads, right? We were like one client, we have 39 videos to be voiced. For all the scripts, all together, right? So you have one trip to the studio all together and most of the quotes we were getting were by the video. And like, no, then suddenly, like I’ve never argued about by the video pricing, like, right? What’s fair is fair.
Tanya Nambiar
Yeah.
Tanya Nambiar
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Vineet
Now I am giving you all the scripts together. I want to charge by the second versus by the video and finally.
Tanya Nambiar
So the ethical way is to that if a company is giving you bulk videos, then you give a bulk costing because they’re giving you a huge chunk of work and it’s, and then you kind of bring down the costing and work on it because you’re giving a bulk costing to a client. But if it’s like a one off video, then you charge accordingly. And it’s really taken me time to sort of understand that. And I think like now the moment a client approaches me, I understand first, what’s the budget, figure it out. You know, it’s much faster. The experience always helps in this, but also keep telling people to observe what’s happening in the market and go.
Vineet
I am.
Tanya Nambiar
There are communities where people put out these requirements for freelancers and for beginners, see the quotation from there and then sort of work your way upwards, understanding what you’re offering to the people and what your skill set is.
Vineet
Perfect, perfect and I think that’s a fairly serious point to end the discussion on but this has been fantastic. Thank you for your time. It was such a great experience for me getting to know about this industry.
Tanya Nambiar
Thank you.
tanya nambiar
Yes, glad to be here and thank you for having me.
Vineet
Thanks for your time and thanks for all this information and thank you all for tuning in and we will see you next time. Thank you.
