One man, 64 voices: Mimicry artiste Sandeep Lokhande deconstructs his craft

Sandeep Lokhande prepares a script and introduces the actors in their voices

Before stand-up comedy entered India, creating a funnyman in every corner, mimicry artistes doubled up as comedians. They would prepare scripts revolving around film stars and at times, throw in a dialogue from a famous scene to earn their due. Sandeep Lokhande, a Mumbai-based mimicry artiste, has been practising the art since 1990, and can imitate 64 voices. Ahead of a performance, the self-taught artiste discusses how he has been doing his homework over the years.

"Mimicry has fascinated me since I was eight. My experiments with voices began after I went to watch the film, Muka Ghya Muka, starring Dada Kondke [popular Marathi actor]. I noticed how people would applaud after every dialogue. During the interval, I started repeating his dialogues while my father bought snacks. People in the theatre looked at me with admiration," says the 35-year-old, who won a gold medal for mimicry from Mumbai University in 1999. "It gave a start to my professional stint. Earlier, I used to participate in school competitions."

He would end up spending all his time and money watching Hindi films to master the voices of actors he aimed to mimic, which also includes the unconventional Akshaye Khanna. "It takes time to grasp the correct tone and pitch; imitating Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjeev Kumar and Amjad Khan was easy for their body language," he adds.
Back then, Lokhande used to record his mimicry attempts on a cassette, which helped him perfect his craft. "There were no mobile phones or recorders. All I could do was record the voices I wanted to mimic and ask my friends to judge. They would tell me if I needed more practice," he says, adding, "Mimicry has no trainers or teachers, you have to do it all by yourself."

People attend his shows for his take on Sunny Deol and Govinda. "My well-wishers say that my side profile is similar to that of Govinda. In fact, he had attended one of my shows, where I imitated him. He couldn't stop laughing. As far as Sunny is concerned, people love to hear how I say 'Babuji' in his voice," he reveals.

Lokhande believes it is difficult to mimic today's actors. "They are more natural, but they lack style and tonal quality. The older actors will remain my go-to voices."