Kindly hold the line and heed her call

KOCHI: ‘The subscriber you are calling is busy. Kindly hold the line or try again after sometime’, the soft and soothing voice that we usually hear while urgently calling from BSNL landlines is familiar to all Kochiites.It is the same self-composed voice that one hears when one calls to lodge a complaint or to know about due bills.But who is the person behind this voice? It is none other than Sreepriya V, who has been lending her voice for various BSNL and WLL services since the past eight years.Also, it is her voice that we hear at the Cochin International Airport.“It all began when Dr P T Mathew, Principal General Manager of Ernakulam SSA asked to unify the digital recordings coming under Ernakulam SSA and luckily my voice was selected for it,” says Sreepriya who was till then giving voice for the radio ads of BSNL.“The need for an in-house recording artist and a public speaker was the reason I was chosen,” says this BSNL employee who is currently the senior TOA in the public grievance cell of Ernakulam SSA.Along with giving voice to BSNL, Sreepriya is also a favourite compere for the government events and other private programmes.“It was an honour to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last year when he came down for the Kerala Development Congress in Thiruvanathapuram,” says Sreepriya who has compered for over 500 programmes so far.Ask her what interests her more between voice recording and compering, and she says, “Public speaking is riskier.One mistake before the public, and you end up feeling very embarrassed.So I always do my homework and prepare the script before any event.It is also important to know the faces and names of MPs and MLAs, as the majority of the events I am a part of is organised by the State and Central governments.” This is not all to the story, Sreepriya is also a dubbing artist and has done dubbing for various films and advertisements as well.Recently she gave her voice to the lady Assistant Commissioner of police in the film ‘The King and The Commissioner’, and also for the character of Mother Superior in ‘Casanovva’ and many more.In the upcoming movie, ‘Grandmaster’ also, she will lend her voice.“While dubbing, it is important that our voice should match with the character,” says Sreepriya.