Found in translation

Subtitles break the barriers of language and culture and make films accessible to a wider audience. Subha J Rao talks to people from the city who make it possible.

June 2011. Shanghai International Film Festival. An audience that is primarily Chinese watches a Tamil film. They laugh and sigh at all the right moments. When the end credits roll, they rush to speak to the hero. The movie is Kaavalan, the hero Vijay. The other hero of the evening is the sub-titling, in English and Chinese.

Rekhs, who did the English sub-titles, still remembers the rousing reception the film got in a foreign country. She’s a veteran in the field, and has worked on about 125 Tamil features and 500 short films.

Until recently, sub-titles were more of an after-thought. Now, a growing number of filmmakers actively get their films sub-titled, so that it reaches a larger audience, cutting across language barriers.

Nandini Karky, who has sub-titled eight films, beginning with Moondru Per Moondru Kaadhal, says it is time people gave sub-titling a serious thought, because of its immense potential. “When a story is just in one language, its reach is limited. You must amplify it, so that it is heard across the world. Sub-titles help you achieve that,” says Nandini, who has been trained in the field.

Sub-titles take a culture places and explain nuances that might be otherwise lost. At the same time…

Read more | thehindu.com

Posted on juin 10, 2014 in Field of translation

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