I disagree for reasons that are similar to the ones that have already been shared by others.

I disagree for reasons that are similar to the ones that have already been shared by others.

However, I'd like to present a somewhat different perspective from my current teaching context. Over the last few years, I've worked on some institutional projects where I have been asked on multiple occasions to replace "foreign (read native speaker) voices" with Indian ones or to replace a video that has American or British characters with an Indian one. It's usually conveyed through a very casual "they have an accent - our students won't be able to relate to them". I've been reflecting on this for a while and I reckon that in the Indian English universe, there is a perception among many that an English speaker who doesn't sound Indian is somehow not authentic within the Indian context.

I know it sounds a bit bizarre but I've had first hand experience with this. On one of the first public sector education projects I worked on, I was asked to sound more Indian so I would seem more authentic. So, in this world view, an audio with an 'inner-circle' native speaker is automatically inauthentic regardless of whether it's sourced from real life or not.