Kirti Narayan is a famous Indian stuntman also known as a record "crow caller" for being able to call hundreds of crows using his voice.
He has lent his voice to characters like Donald Duck, Johnny Bravo and number of tunes for mobile companies. “Only a person who has the zeal to experiment with his voice can be a voice artist. One needs a lot of patience, good knowledge of the language and the ability to connect with the audience,’’ explains Narayan.
Footage captured in Jaipur shows Narayan imitating the sound of crows perfectly to convoke the birds. All of a sudden, dozens of cawing crows appear in the sky.
Nayaran is currently working on reviving the character of Donald Duck through live shows and social networking websites.
“A few years back Chinese and Japanese cartoons had dominated Indian TV. With cartoons like Chota Bheem, there is great hope that the new generation will again accept Donald Duck, which is one of the cutest cartoon characters,” he says.
His other focus is to create awareness about voice-over artist among people and inform them about the importance of this medium.
‘’People often misunderstand him as a mimicry artist and he wants to clear that misconception. A voice-over artist is someone who feels the character and delivers dialogues accordingly, whereas mimicry is about narrating a few lines,” he informs.
Sharing more about his journey, Kirti says that he had never thought of becoming a voice-over artist. His love for cartoons and observing their body language got him in the industry. “I used to observe Donald Duck’s tongue movements very carefully and used to copy it. When Donald Duck, India was launched, I was amongst those very few artists who could talk perfectly like the character,’’ he added.
Talking about the changes in his industry, Nayaran is happy with the rise in demand for voice-over artist after a long time due to social networking sites, radio and video channels. “There was a time when voice-over artists had to look for jobs in other departments. Awareness of different mediums and people’s openness to new ideas are motivating voice over artists to make a comeback,” ends Kirti, who is planning to launch an album of spiritual rap soon.
