The woman who has become India’s ‘Corona voice’

Thursday, June 18th: Jasleen is a familiar voice to millions of Indians. When you call someone and no one picks up the phone, you don’t hear a ringtone, but sometimes a music or a message is heard instead, it is called ‘Caller Tune’ locally.

For the last two and a half months, whenever people make phone calls, the first thing they hear is a warm and soft voice. The Voice over Artist (Voice Artist), who records voices for others, instructs Indian citizens on how to cope with the Coronavirus epidemic, which has now become a Corona Voice nationwide.

She has been a vocalist for decades. She is also the voice of a private airline company, a major telecom company in India, and the Delhi Metro Airport Service. This is the sound that tells us which station is coming next and whether the doors will open on the right or on the left but, it is the Coronavirus campaign that has given her so much fame. Jasleen Bhalla has become a celebrity for the past week since it became known that she is the voice of the Coronavirus campaign.

A local newspaper published a report on her, and has hailed it as “great” on social media. Audio clips, memes and tik-tok videos are being made based on her voice.

“Until last week, I was doing my normal job and no one knew me much, and then a TV interview went viral and changed my life,” she told the BBC. Unlike many other vocal artists, Miss Bhalla was not a well-known figure. “Because a face is not recognizable by sound.”

But because of the epidemic, she says, “I’m getting better than others because the whole nation is united because of the fear, and it’s united to learn about it, so I hear this voice every day.”

“Obviously, I like the fame and the attention,” she says. But who would want to be associated with Corona?”. One morning in March, a telephone call changed the tone of her voice, with a message from the Indian Ministry of Health asking her to make an emergency recording.

“My producer said it should be 30 seconds, you have to feel happy and warm, but at the same time you have to worry about the style of directing and the sense of responsibility,” she said over the phone from her home in Delhi.

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These were the early days of the epidemic in India and not everyone knew the basics of how to avoid it. The message she recorded began with “Hello! The whole country is fighting the Coronavirus or Covid-19 today.”

Then the message said that people should stay in their homes and be safe, do not go out unless there is a very important work, when you go out, wear a mask on your face, wash your hands frequently with soap and keep a social distance to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

“I was asked to record these messages in both English and Hindi. I recorded each message four to five times, then sent it and forgot. Then a day or two later, my family and friends told me, “Do you know that when someone calls, your voice is heard on every telephone?”

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Miss Bhalla says that when she recorded the messages for the campaign, she had no idea that they would be used in such a way that her voice would be heard by so many people.

But at the behest of the government, telecom companies replaced caller tunes with public health tunes, and repeated 30-second audio clips, making Bhalla’s voice India’s most recognizable voice. The way things have changed in the last few weeks and public health guidelines have changed she has recorded two more messages.

The second message was recorded while people were fighting doctors, nurses and staff directly fighting the disease. So I was told to remind them that we are fighting disease.

“It was a very emotional stage when I recorded this message, my hair stood on end,” she said. “It was a beautiful message and it reflected my feelings.”

She recorded the third message when the rules of social distance were changed and people were told to keep the distance to two meters instead of one meter. Although some people have complained that these messages bother them because they have to listen to them over and over again. Some even found ways to avoid them.

Miss Bhalla realizes that some people do not like to hear these messages over and over again and may avoid them, because they also have to listen to these messages when they make a phone call to someone. “I know it will last for 30 seconds and it’s my own voice that tells me to wash my hands frequently, wear a mask and use a sanitizer.”

“But we are facing a very serious situation.”

“Beware, it’s a new habit for us now. I think this bittersweet pill has become inevitable for us,” says Bhalla. It’s a logical and effective way to spread the message to everyone and to remote areas. ”