Hasan Zaidi: Having a good voice adds a lot of value to a role

Actor Hasan Zaidi often gets compliments for his rich baritone. Over the years, the 'Zindagi Mere Ghar Aana' actor has been working on his voice. Initially, he was clueless how to work on it but with age and experience of doing theatre as a medium, singing while playing the guitar, acting on Television, film and also dubbing helped him.

"I am also learning how to breathe effectively. This along with non-stop singing, acting and dubbing has given me some sort of control over my voice for every character I portray or to master a particular scene which has to be rendered in a certain way. No doubt having a good voice adds a lot of value. There have been actors who have not been such great lookers or great performers but their voice is the reason they have left a mark."

He adds: "At the same time there have been some very good looking and effective actors whose voice unfortunately didn't work for them. People with lasting impacts in terms of a character portrayed on screen are remembered," says the actor known for shows like 'Rishtey.com', 'Zindagi Mere Ghar Aana', and he also appeared in movies like 'Horror Story', 'Dishkiyaoon' and 'Sargoshiyan'.

Hasan feels in Bollywood there have been many actors who have effective voice. "But obviously the first name that comes to everybody's mind is Amitabh Bachchan saab. The way he effectively uses his voice for dialogues, songs, reading etc is amazing. Om Puri saab again had an amazing baritone. I think Madhuri Dixit [Nene] also has a wonderful voice, it's alive, so full of happiness. All these people have used their voices very effectively," he adds.


Talking about venturing into dubbing, the actor had no prior plans till he landed into one such work by chance. It started during the phase when a lot of story pilots were being narrated to the channel or to the maker or they were used as pitches in comparison to just give somebody a short script comprising 3-4 pages.

"I did a few of those and I enjoyed what I heard. I write poems, then narrate and also record them. I have plans to release them in future. I have recently collaborated with Mantra (comedian and actor) of Mantramugdh (a recording studio owned by Mantra). He's a well-known and prolific sound artist of our country, a brilliant actor and very enterprising. Mantra has got a show on Spotify which is called Bhaskar Bose and I enjoyed doing a few episodes with him," he says.

Meanwhile, Hasan has been earning praises for his portrayal of Pritam in 'Zindagi Mere Ghar Aan'. "I think the audience like his unpredictability, the way he sounds and that Pritam doesn't give away too much but is crazy in a way. We've tried to find a balance between being psycho and unpredictability, between emotion and being indifferent. It's a learning process and all the love makes me grateful," he adds.- IANS