Meet some noise makers

Foley artists are finally sharing their sound-effects secrets on Insta. Listen in to their creative hacks

- Taranna Khetpal

The right soundscape can make you buy something you don’t need, convince you that a horrific scene has a comic side, and make you question what you're seeing.

“It's what makes Tom Cruise hanging off a plane seem even more believable,” says Ganesh Gangadharan, 47, a Mumbai-based sound designer. “You take in the heavy breathing, the scrape of his hands against metal, the rush of wind, and the roar of the plane.” More sound artists are sharing their secrets on Reels and clips. And, judging by the Likes, we're all in awe.

India makes the job especially complicated. We're a noisy nation. We take in and tune out more than we realise: The traffic jam filtering in, Alexa mishearing a command, and the ASMR of the cook preparing dinner, the elevator dings carrying through the office floor, the cat covering his business in the adjoining bathroom...

So, when shows on streaming platforms such as Netflix follow global standards, it might sound too quiet in Indian homes. And when your home TV plays the hero's whisper and an explosion at the same volume, it’s often because sound engineers have a tougher time squeezing sounds into an OTT platform than a cinema hall.