The truth is I rarely get a script before I walk into a dubbing studio. There may be a phone call a few days earlier asking whether I am available, and that is about it. I enter, glance at the script, watch the first scene and begin to understand the character as I perform. You have to adapt immediately.

If you are new, you will probably test for every part. After years in the business, studios know what your voice can do. Sometimes they call because they can already hear you as that character. I never expected any of this. I always knew I would become an actor. Voice work happened by accident after I returned from Drama Studio London. Commercials and corporate narrations kept coming, the money became substantial, and it became a parallel profession — as important as acting.

Unlike sets, a dubbing room is surprisingly solitary. It is usually me with the mic, while the dubbing director and two audio engineers sit in the engineering room. We discuss interpretations and sometimes disagree. Ultimately, the director has the final say for good reason. As voice actors, we rarely watch the film or series. We see our sections. The director has the full picture.

What many get wrong about dubbing is that a voice actor must imitate the actors. Not true. When I voiced Adam Sandler, Michael Fassbender or The Professor in Money Heist, my voice remains mine. What matters is whether it belongs convincingly to the face on screen.

I have to match emotion, rhythm, breath and, crucially, time. A line has only so many seconds available. Yet I can add an inflection, a sigh or a small sound that strengthens the performance.

Voice actors have one freedom screen actors often lack. Our faces do not restrict us. I can use a deeper or higher voice, and animation expands that range further.

I once got called to voice a Spider-Man trailer for Doctor Strange because Mohan Kapur, the actor who usually voiced him was abroad. I messaged him to explain that I was only doing the trailer and hoped he would return for the film. I did not want to take his character. Then there is The Professor. After 48 episodes of Money Heist, I felt I knew him inside out. I suspect Indian audiences would find another voice on him strange.

Streaming transformed the business. Shows now appear in several languages, which has created work for established artists and opened doors for new ones. Sacred Games, for which I dubbed Saif Ali Khan’s character in English, was an early example. There is also far more training available. Most of the big dubbing studios run programmes, there are excellent independent voice coaches, and much of it is accessible online. When I started, none of that existed. I learnt on the job, session by session. Today, I’m a voice and body language coach myself and run a programme called Million Dollar Presence.

AI poses a different question. Early synthetic voices were easy to identify. They are becoming alarmingly good. A lot of the middle-tier voice work we once did has already disappeared because some brands ask why they should pay an artist when they can generate a voice themselves. Emotion does not always matter to them. They simply need a voiceover.

Dubbing will take longer, but I can see AI entering that space. I suspect human voices will be licensed because the technology still needs them. The crucial question is whether performers will be paid and protected. In India, adequate safeguards for actors’ voices remain a concern. Someone does not need my face or even my presence to reproduce what I do.

After more than 20 years, the profession has also ruined television for me. After years behind a mic, you can hear what has been done well, and what hasn’t. In the studio, if a breath hits wrongly, there is a click or an odd sound — I will take the line again. Because the audience may never spot the difference. But I will.