Audiobooks transcend physical books only when the narrator is good enough to draw you in and hold your attention for the whole duration of the book. Here’s a list of our favourite and certainly the best audiobook narrators in India, and their works.
Best Audiobook Narrators In India | Book Narrators:
Ayesha Dharker (A Suitable Boy)
Recently televised by BBC, this humongous book by Vikram Seth follows a young girl on the brink of marriage. She must make a choice between her Muslim first love, a shoemaker her mother chooses and a Bengali poet. In contrast, a love affair riddled with politics unravels between a politician’s son and a Muslim courtesan. Ayesha, playing the character of the girl in search of a suitable boy, nails the work. Ayesha is a British actress who appeared in Star Wars.
Sagar Arya (Scion of Ikshvaku)
In this introduction to the Ram Chandra series by Amish which re-imagines the Ramayana, Sagar Arya portrays the lord Rama. With delicacy and poise yet firmness and sonority, Sagar brings this mythological hero elevated to the status of a God to life. He is an actor with films like ‘Baar Baar Dekho’ to his credit and a prominent audiobook narrator as well.
Bindya Solanki (The White Tiger)
Bindya Solanki is a British actress who features in the TV show EastEnders. She also appears in the famous show Criminal Justice. Plus, she’s a graduate in drama – and her voice intonation proves that. In The White Tiger by Arvind Adiga, following the ambitions of a rich family’s driver to rise up the ranks using is cunning, she narrates the story with impeccable gusto.
Suchitra Pillai (The Forest of Enchantments)
Suchitra Pillai, the Indian actress, became a household name with Dil Chahta Hai and was last seen in the web series ‘Kehne Ko Humsafar Hai’. With a beautiful, raspy voice, she tells the story of the Ramayana from the perspective of Sita. Her voice resonates with us, and she embodies the qualities of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s Sita – delicate yet strong and steadfast.
Siddhant Pinto (Roll of the Dice)
As the previous book was Sita’s Ramayana, this book is Duryodhana’s Mahabharata. Anand Neelkanthan’s mammoth book captures the Indian epic from the eyes of the vanquished. And Siddhant Pinto, a prolific narrator who captures Duryodhana’s inner angst with poignant detail, nails it.
Harish Bhimani (Siddhartha)
Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha is an existentialist novel which recounts the spiritual journey of a young Indian till he understands finally the design of life. Bhimani, a music artist, anchor and voiceover artist, does wonders at co-creating Siddhartha’s character. He tells the story with a detached peace, just as the story demands.
Arundhati Roy (The Ministry of Utmost Happiness)
Arundhati Roy is a masterful creator of worlds and a prolific user of language – and she is also a brilliant narrator. In the Ministry, she tells the stories of the marginalized. Of the passengers of the 2002 Godhra bombing to the Kashmir insurgency and more. She narrates the audiobook herself, lending to it an urgency and emotion unparalleled.
Deepti Gupta (Home and the World)
Tagore’s Ghare Baire is the story of a woman conflicted between her peaceful and calm husband, and his charismatic and volatile friend. Deeti is an Audie award nominated actress and audiobook narrator, who portrays with sensitivity and sentiment Tagore’s complex characters.
Mala Mangla (The Ice-Candy Man)
With her soothing voice, Mangla brings to life the partition of India in 1947 through the lens of a polio ridden young Parsi in Lahore, Lenny. After the abduction of her attractive young Ayah in the partition, she struggles to accommodate her new reality and the changing landscapes of India post partition. Through the eyes of an innocent child, it becomes particularly moving.
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