Hindi Subbers: Let's Talk

So do you translate Oppa in bhaiya in Hindi?
Or do you keep Oppa for ex when the girl is talking to her older boyfriend?
Or is there a word for this situation (Oppa from the younger girlfriend) in Hindi?

That’s really interesting to know English degree of influence on other languages, especially on old colonies.

For me, India is like one exception or a specimen of language evolution to have integrated this much English in their language, to the point where Hindi subtitlers wonder whether we can include English.

For Hong Kong compared to India for ex.

It’s true that the past impacts today.

I met adults and elders as volunteers, so I also changed my opinion about that a few years ago when I got more acquainted with volunteers who have this passion when they speak about Kdramas, Cdramas and Bollywood (look at Irmar’s comment lol where can you find this passion?? Not on Quora lol).

Do you have elders or older people than you in your circle who watch dramas?

I discovered Chinese dramas thanks to my parents and my father knows more about Kdramas than myself lol (Doctors, W, Pinocchio, thrillers… he likes Kdramas!).
The first reason I began contributing on Viki was to subtitle a show so I can watch it first with my mother who can’t read English.

So all that to say that adults and elders are in the place :slight_smile:

I have 0 show appearing when I click on India in the Explore Shows page (from France). I think it’s restricted in India because it’s alteady licensed in your country by another company (to keep premium content or exclusivity so people subscribe).

But I see Bollywood on Netflix, so I’m going to check for Irmar’s titles and see if they have 1 of them.

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If you see the ones I see from Greece, then the answer is no.
I did see quite a lot that I’ve watched, that are not bad. Here are a few:
Lagaan In 1890s India, an arrogant British commander challenges the harshly taxed residents of the Champaner village to a high-stakes cricket match. Very well-made and “sweeping”, with great music. Lagaan received widespread critical acclaim and awards at international film festivals, as well as many Indian film awards. It became the third Indian film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film I’d gladly watch this for the 3rd time, I think.

Queen Dumped by her fiancé, a sheltered young woman decides to go on her honeymoon to Europe alone, embarking on an exhilarating journey of self-discovery. Good one, with very good acting by the main lead. Queen was praised for its direction, screenplay and performances (particularly from the female lead), with various critics and publications citing it as the best film of 2014. At the 62nd National Film Awards ceremony, the film won the Best Hindi Film and Best Actress awards.

Paheli It tells the fairy-tale story of a wife (Rani Mukerji) who is left by her husband (Shah Rukh Khan) and visited by a ghost, disguised as her husband, who is in love with her and takes her husband’s place. I liked it because I love the main actors and it was visually very appealing and pleasant to watch, although it wasn’t totally gripping. (Paheli was India’s official entry to the 2006 Oscars).

Oh My God. Satirical film on religious frenzy. After a low-intensity earthquake hits the city, only one shop is destroyed. At the insurance office, a mearchant learns that the disaster claim does not cover any damage caused by natural calamities classified under “Act of God”. Running out of options, he decides to sue God. The matter escalates.

Peepli Live Satirical comedy film directed by a woman, based on real-life problem, the topic of farmer suicides and the subsequent media and political response. Two poor farmers drowned in debt decide to commit suicide for their families to receive State financial help. The media catches on and every kind of journalist camps there to transmit the suicides. It was India’s official entry for the 83rd Academy Awards Best Foreign Film category although it was not nominated.

Jodhaa Akbar Luscious and visually stunning telling of a historical love story. In 16th-century India, what begins as a strategic alliance between a Mughal emperor and a Hindu princess becomes a genuine opportunity for true love. Very good-looking actors in gorgeous period costumes. It’s fun, and watchable, although by no means a masterpiece.

Wake Up Sid Freeloading off his wealthy parents, an unambitious brat is compelled to reevaluate his choices when a mature, goal-oriented woman enters his life. Urban, intelligent romantic comedy, for the first time a female lead who is not really pretty but an awesome actress. The male lead is a good actor as well, so if you watch one romantic comedy, this one could be of your liking. It’s not cheesy and silly.

Welcome to Sajjanpur Affectionate comedy about a man who writes letters for uneducated people, sometimes changing them as he wishes. Not the usual flashy Bollywood fare.

Mumbai Meri Jaan A portrayal of the 2006 train bombings in Mumbai, this Indian drama follows the interconnected stories of several strangers. I haven’t watched this but I’ve heard good things about it.

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yep. ‘Bhaiya’ works for all instances of oppa/ hyung (doesn’t matter who is calling) It means ‘older brother’ so it works for people close to you, related to you or even older guy strangers.

nOPE. I am teased by every member of my family as being ‘Korean’ or ‘Chinese’ :roll_eyes: They don’t get why I would watch something whose language I don’t know.
idk about others but the elders in my family hardly even watch English entertainment, and subtitles is something they would find extremely irritating and never ever read. All the entertainment they watch is in my mother-tongue (Hindi is regarded as the national language, but each state has its own language too). Only my mother sits with me sometimes to watch.
That’s why it never even entered my head that elders would watch it.

yep. It’s mostly all on Hotstar or Prime Video.

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I also know 1 language with the equivalent for Oppa/Hyung! That is nice to know.

Do Indian cinemas / channels promote English entertainment or do they mainly promote Indian entertainment?

How people were exposed to it, countries exporting it, availability in the country, availability of translations…

For my parents, it began at a young age with translations of foreign children books and comics. Then teenagers, very few foreign movies at the cinema like “Gone with the Wind”!
Became older and discovered Internet, YouTube lol

Yes, access and subs!

At the same time, I find it easier for someone to have access to materials to learn a language with people making videos, apps on phones in addition to books + traveling. They also added education of foreign languages at school from a young age + school exchange… so we can become translators lol

That reminds me of priests from Italy.
They’ve always watched the same boring content from what told me one priest. One day, he asked other priests what kind of movies they’d like to watch. He began to look for movies, subtitled or dubbed it to make it available for others and they talked about it, what the message in that movie was. Thereafter, these priests were really excited when it was time to gather and watch together a movie lol More priests came!

That’s how important subs or dubs are lol
No subs or no dubs, no foreign public, no passion born…

It also creates links between people, creating communities, sharing a culture, so it is not just subtitling or dubbing a movie or a drama…

That’s why it’s important for me to bring some quality into it. If we care about the content, the countries and stories we’re making people discover and the public, we’d like to share it with a great quality because it has a meaning for us to share it with people.

So I understand your question about how to sub it and make it available for your compatriots lol

Even so, you can make elders and adults fans of dramas by making it available in Hindi scripts! No fans if no subs lol

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Thanks for the list, Irmar! Now I have to compare with Netflix France :smile:

You do have most of the same, plus some more.

Rang de Basanti An idealistic English filmmaker casts a group of student actors in her docudrama about India’s revolution against British rule in the 1920s. The students have no idea about these things, but they get caught up as they learn about the sacrifice of the revolutionaries, and are compelled to give their own fight for the things that matter to them. Warmly recommended.

Barfi Years after rejecting Barfii, a hearing and speech impaired young man, for a more “appropriate” suitor, Shruti finds herself falling for him. Sweet film, not a masterpiece, but the leading actor is very charismatic.

Udaan. Not a pleasant story. How a son breaks away from an abusive father.

Fashion. A small-town girl finally realizes her dream of becoming a famous supermodel but soon finds there’s a price for her glamorous new life. The whole unpleasant side of the fashion industry is exposed in the film. Not a pleasant story.

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I really notice an increase of Hindi subbers. I get finder messages for Hindi almost every week so the Hindi community on Viki seems to grow a lot lately.

I’m also for writing in Hindi as it’s part of the language. Just like you usually won’t write Japanese in Romanji but use Kana instead.

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Thank you!! Too much choice, I might end up being unable to pick :exploding_head::rofl:

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haha why don’t I add my own favourites to spoil you for choice!
Hichki this one has been made reallly well, about a woman with a neural disorder that causes her to speak with a stammer but still aspires to be teacher. To dissuade her, she is assigned to the worst-behaved class in the entire school. It’s a really heartwarming movie.
I loved the songs in it too.

Jo Jeeta Woh Sikandar its an ollllld ollllld high school movie so its really really cringey but I love it, especially this song


because in the movie this girl likes her best friend but he likes the popular girl, so the video that accompanies the song is really sad to watch (he’s dreaming of the popular girl while she dreams of him)

Jab We Met Aditya, a heartbroken business tycoon, aimlessly boards a train to escape his depressing life. He meets Geet, a bubbly Punjabi girl, and gets pulled into her crazy life.
Because I like running away movies :slight_smile:

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When I have Oppa or Noona, I look at who is using them. If it is being used to address a lover then I use the name with respectful adj. because it won’t make sense to call your lover “older brother” in that case. If it is being used to address older brother or older male other than lover, then I use Hindi word for older brother. Same for Noona. In Hindi, it won’t make sense to audience if a girl keeps calling her lover “brother” or a boy keeps calling his crush “sister”.
Indians use lot of English words in day to day life so words like “social media, internet etc” are very common and I don’t translate them. English language is the common denominator in India due to British. We have so many languages that person from North cannot understand a person from South. English language bridges that barrier. I grew up learning/speaking 3 languages (my state language, Hindi and English) in North side. I am not sure if South follows same structure.

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Yeah we do the same thing, but we don’t give too much importance to Hindi. It is second language in schools but no one actually speaks on a daily basis.

Can I ask what your native language is and have you ever considered translating a drama here on Viki in that language?

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I’m also for writing in Hindi as it’s part of the language. Just like you usually won’t write Japanese in Romanji but use Kana instead.

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Kannada, but no I’ve never thought of translating-- I’m not too good and I don’t think there’s too much of an audience either…

Thanks, all of you guys, for your opinions! They made me think, and now I’m convinced our own, unique and beautiful script is the best way to go! :smile:

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Hello guys!
Long time no see (~ ̄³ ̄)~
I am the kaorikazehaya who subbed on Viki to a great (not so great) extent.
I deleted my account in mid August due to some health issues which I had been facing since past 3 years.
Anyway, I rejoined Viki just to answer to this thread because I couldn’t hold myself back and then will delete this account too.

@vivi_1485 सबसे पहली बात, आप बचपन से हिंदी नहीं बोलती। आपने मुझे बताया था कि आप मुंबई में रहती हो तो मैं यही मान कर कह रही हूं कि आपको मराठी आती होगी, थोड़ी बहुत ही सही लेकिन आती होगी। और आपने बताया कि आप कन्नड़ भी नहीं जानती अच्छे से तो आपको आती कौन सी भाषा है?
आपकी हिंदी सच में बहुत खराब है, बहुत ज़्यादा। मुझे घंटों लगते हैं पूरा एपिसोड एडिट करने में और सच बताऊं तो अगर मैं अकेले ही पूरा एपिसोड सबटाइटल करूं तो मुझे कम समय लगेगा।
जब आपको अच्छे से हिंदी नहीं आती तो मुझे नहीं लगता कि आपको कोई हक है ये पूछने तक का भी कि हिंदी को हिंदी नहीं बल्कि इंग्लिश में लिखा जाए। ये एक दम वैसा होगा जैसे मैं, जिसको चाईनीज नहीं आती वो जाकर चीनियों को कहे कि तुम लोग हांजी में लिखना छोड़ दो क्योंकि उसको पढ़ने में बहुत समय जाता है। यह ग़लत होगा, होगा कि नहीं?
मुझे कन्नड़ नहीं आती तो कन्नड़ के बारे में जब कोई इस तरह की बात करे तो मैं कुछ नहीं बोलूंगी। और अगर हो सके तो प्लीज़ आप हिंदी में सब्बिंग मत किया करो क्योंकि आपकी ग्राम्मर बहुत ज़्यादा सच में बहुत ज़्यादा खराब है। अब मैं Hi School Love On की मॉडरेटर नहीं हूं तो मैं कुछ नहीं कर सकती लेकिन अगर आपको मराठी या इंग्लिश अच्छे से आती होगी तो उनको सब कर लिया करो! या फिर टीम को जेनरल एडिटर के तौर पर ज्वॉइन करो और फिर कंट्रीब्यूट करो लेकिन जिसको हिंदी नहीं आती उसका ऐसे पूछना कि हिंदी के बजाए इंग्लिश कैसा रहेगा, इससे किसी को भी गुस्सा आ सकता है।

और थोड़ा सा दिमाग लगाकर पूछा करो क्योंकि viki पर मैं लगभग हर हिंदी सबर को जानती हूं और सबके साथ काम भी किया है, Viki की सबसे पुरानी हिंदी सबर sandeepsandhu के साथ भी और जितने नए सबर आते है सब ज़्यादा तर मुझसे ही पहले बात करते थे या मैं उनसे। उन लोगों से (हिंदी कम्युनिटी) पूछ लेना था कि हिंदी हिंदी में लिखा जाए या इंग्लिश में। जब विदेशी लोग जिनको हिंदी आती भी नहीं वो आपको कहे की जो भाषा है वहीं लिखो तो ज़रा सा भी, बिल्कुल थोड़ा सा भी बुरा नहीं लगा?

और जिन लोगों को हिंदी सबटाइटल देखने ही हैं तो वो हिंदी में देखना पसंद करेंगे, अगर उनको हिंग्लिश में ही देखना है तो सीधे इंग्लिश ही ना देख ले?

Please note how much hours you took to read this and I guess that’s enough to put the question at rest.

BTW guys, I’ll miss you all so much and especially you @mirjam_465 (◕દ◕). You were the best here on discussions.
Thank you guys for always loving me, if I live, I’ll come back at Viki again and if don’t let’s meet in next life.

And yes, if Viki ever launches a Hindi badge, guess whom to thank to. I received a reply to my ticket that the badge is on its way.

@moreenke I am really sorry I couldn’t make the cover page and ruined your first channel, I am reall really really sorry :bowing_man::bowing_man::bowing_man:

Love :heavy_heart_exclamation:
Kaori

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We will miss you too, Kaori. I hope you will recover and that we’ll meet again! :cherry_blossom::cherry_blossom::cherry_blossom:

sorry to see you go, kaori, but I hope you take care! we worked together for a short time and it’s too bad I didn’t get to know you that well. I wish you all the best! Lot’s of love

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Hello!
Oh, don’t worry about the cover. You didn’t ruin anything at all, it’s okay.
Thanks for letting me know. I truly hope you’ll get well soon and we’ll get to work together on viki one day.
Love :heart:

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And when texting each individual uses a different spelling and most people use shortcuts

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