After the advent and subsequent proliferation of OTT platforms in India like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar, and SonyLIV etc., inter-language content is now more accessible than ever for Indian cinephiles and OTT audiences. Most films and web series across Indian OTT platforms now-a-days have the option of enjoying them with English subtitles.
A significant chunk of streaming viewers is comfortable with watching movies and shows with English subtitles. But there is also a sizable segment of OTT audiences who want to watch other language titles with their native language subtitles. For instance, a Kannada movie buff residing in a non-urban area might want to watch an English or Hindi language movie with Kannada subtitles, in case Kannada language audio is not available for that particular film.
You might already be aware that there are some language text translation tools including language to language text translators which are available. So, why can’t OTT platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar, SonyLIV and others integrate a customized version of one such language-to-language transition tool into their OTT platforms to enable a viewer to watch a film or show with subtitle of his/her choice of language.
But the question is: can a language-to-language translator be the perfect solution to the subtitle problem that exists in some Indian OTT platforms? We suppose not. In fact, it’s a far cry as of now. Because, when streaming platforms hire the services of an expert translator, the human translator does not just convert the subtitled text from one language to another. But the translator, more importantly, tries to retain the essence and underlying meaning of the subtitled words which are originally intended to be conveyed by the film’s original writer to the viewer and that too in a different language.
That should be a difficult task for a machine. Even the latest real time translation technology may fall short of being the perfect solution to the subtitle problem for OTTs. Perhaps in the near future, we might have an algorithm which can do stuff a human translator can do without losing the heart of the original words. But until then, the subtitle problem might persist, and OTT audiences would have to contend with the available subtitles for a particular film or web series.