It was a hat trick for independent lifestyle and feature writer, content developer and voice artiste Benaifer Mirza when, in December 2021, she was included in the "Best Female Voice Artiste — English Audiobooks Narration” category at the India Voice Fest Awards 2021. "I won this award for my narration of an audio story titled The Flute, for Storytel India,” she wrote to Parsiana. It was originally written by Bengali writer Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay and translated into English by Utsa Bose. Mirza mentioned that her previous awards included an award in the "Corporate Audio Visual — English — Female category in 2019 and in the "Best Female Voice Artiste — English Audiobooks Narration” category in 2020 for Storytel’s original audio story titled Shakuntala Devi, written by Priyanka Sarkar.
Benaifer Mirza with her recent awards
"Voicing has a world of opportunities… It has something for everyone, irrespective of their age, gender, language of comfort…. It’s important to remember that everyone has a unique voice,” she believes.
"The voicing profession could be divided into voice-overs (narrations) and dubbing…My area of expertise is voice-overs, where I lend my voice to advertisements and promotions, audiovisuals (AV), eLearning modules and audiobooks.” The artiste, who has worked with multiple brands, stated that she has narrated for several AVs and case studies, more than 45 audio books, and a number of TV, digital and radio promotion. "My voice can also be heard on the IVR (interactive voice response) systems of prominent brands such as Pepperfry, Organic India and Federal Bank.”
It is not simply about how sweet your voice sounds, stated Mirza. It is "also about your fluency in the languages you want to voice in, your capacity to modulate and intonate, and how well you’re able to understand the script… It’s as important to be a good listener and listen to the brief that the client shares with you.”
Mirza was recognized as one of the 99 Achievers of India by the Indian Achievers Club in November 2021. Queried whether voice work is a good career option for young Zoroastrians, she stated: "As a Bombay-bred Parsi, it’s always a great advantage that most of us are fluent in English. But the one heartfelt plea that I would like to make to new artistes is, please try to speak Gujarati, your mother tongue, as fluently. In fact, very often, a number of scripts are written in the native language. So, if possible, do try to learn how to read and write Gujarati as well…The more the number of languages you’re fluent in, the wider is your horizon,” stated Mirza. F. J.