Indian culture is highly inclusive with arts, film and TV in society. With the current COVID -19 situation we’ve been facing, children are not able to go to school. The situation seems to be uncertain for some time moving ahead.
Here comes, ‘Same Language Subtitling’ an initiative that was picked up at IIM – Ahmedabad. Now if we club this situation, SLS is only going to benefit us as it is a clear cost effective mass literacy approach.
India has high illiteracy rates but the children who’re already part of the education system are also proven to not be educated in so many parts of the country for various reasons like improper schools, ineffective learning methods, etc. So this clearly connects the content consumption our audiences have and a tool to serve our advantage.
When English/foreign language films release in theatres or on OTT, they have subtitles according to our primary language “Hindi” and the original language of the country the content is coming from. Even Hindi language films are dubbed in multiple languages including Bengali, Tamil, Kannad, Telugu, etc. for market needs but it is not the case for it’s own language to have subtitles.
Example – ‘Gulabo Sitabo’ that released on Amazon Prime Video this past month had subtitles in 15 other languages except ‘Hindi’.
Netflix in USA was forced to add subtitles in all langauges post losing a lawsuit in 2014 hence it is a legal obligation. For an overall audience, it is a tool to revolutionize reading. OTT platforms in India still have tricky regulations with the Government to be cleared out. With free and high exposure of subtitles on TV, it can push our audiences to be fluent readers. Our entertainment channels lack proper implementation of various rules including this one.
Our culture that is losing out on its mother tongue command as a country, this approach would be beneficial. Let’s see how various Indian OTT platforms will consider this essential.
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