set to travel outside Kerala
Kochi: Sreepriya, the voice behind the new caller tune of BSNL, is the voice of hope that Malayalees have been hearing over the phone since the coronavirus vaccine became a reality.
A native of Kochi, Sreepriya is a junior accountant at the BSNL office in Kadavanthra.
Now, Sreepriya's voice is all set to travel outside Kerala. BSNL's English customer care services and fault booking directions in Sreepriya's voice will soon be available across the country. A customer calling 1500 or 198 will be able to listen to Sreepriya's voice from anywhere in the country. All the recordings in this regard have been completed.
It has been over two decades since Malayalees started listening to Sreepriya's voice. Her voice was first heard when BSNL used to be the Department of Telecommunications. Customers booking telegram service used to hear "Welcome to phonogram service" in Sreepriya's voice. Later when BSNL became BSNL, the officials decided to use Sreepriya's voice for radio advertisements. Now, Sreepriya's voice is behind all of BSNL's alerts in Kerala.
Earlier, people never used to recognise me. Later, when I started anchoring public programmes, some people would come up and ask "is it your voice that we are hearing over the phone?"
"Following the COVID-19 pandemic, when articles started appearing in newspapers, people started recognising me. Some told me that my voice sounds different when I speak to them in person. It could be because I am very careful and conscious while recording," says Sreepriya.
Voices for caller tunes and customer care services are recorded after learning them thoroughly and voicing them in different sound modulations. Only a select few are sent to the BSNL chief officer, who will decide the final version.
The message for the new COVID-19 vaccine was prepared following the directions of BSNL Kerala circle chief general manager C. V. Vinod and mobile section general manager Saju George.
It was the Kerala circle of BSNL that introduced COVID-19 vaccine message as caller tune. Now, the customer doesn't have to listen to the entire voice message. As soon as the person on the other end picks up the phone, the caller tune will be disconnected.
