“LIKE AJITH, I HAVE NO GODFATHER OR GODMOTHER”

For Rekhs, the popular sub-titlist, Anjala, the Vemal starrer is the 330th film. She shares her thoughts with behindwoods.

Anjala is 330th film. How do you look at this journey?

It's been a very challenging, interesting and definitely an uphill task. But being at the right place at the right time helped. And of course Gautham Menon's faith in my subtitling ability. It is absolutely God's grace plus the support I got from networking sites, Facebook, Twitter and Behindwoods from day one. Thank you Manoj and Team.

My #windbeneathmywings Twitter group did wonders spreading the awareness of subtitles world over. Like Ajith I have no Godfather or Godmother and I etched my own path amidst all odds.

Lessons learnt in this journey
1. Be prepared to lose your beauty-sleep!

2. Everything is last minute.

Q: When do you want the subs?

Ans: Yesterday! Lol.

3. No pain no gain, worth every b'day and anniversary I missed out, of friends and family.

Challenging films

Karnan: (classical Tamil and songs), Rudhramadevi (for its historical content), Any and all Santhanam's films! (colloquial words, Appatucker for example), Ennu Ninte Moideen (for its varied Malayalam accent), Thaara Thappattai (Maestro's ‘idarinum’ lyrics and the crude flavour of Bala's dialogues), Aaradhu Sinam (Work In Progress- Thirukural song), Sivakumar's Mahabharatham (Work In Progress)

Tips for aspiring sub-titlists

'Fluency' in English is certainly a very important criterion. Please don't make Wren & Martin turn in their graves! Readability matters as much as good English. This is an art by itself and not a cakewalk. Simple typos and grammatical errors will make us an object of ridicule in the eyes of the world.

Future projects
Working on Pugazh, Kanidhan, Aaraadhu Sinam, Darling 2, Two films for festivals

Future plans
My dream is to ensure every Tamil /Malayalam/Telugu film is watched in every nook and corner of the world with GOOD/ near perfect subtitles. To motivate Kannada films to come out of their shell and subtitle their films. To ask critics and reviewers to also review subtitles. To request the Govt of India to add recognition by way of a mere mention in national awards. From making sure all films are subtitled we should move on to the stage of ensuring all films carry QUALITY subtitles that will make us proud as an Indian! Work towards that in a positive way.

When a film is highly native that could be anything from a Madurai slang to a Nellai dialect to thara local Chennai lingo, how do you bring the flavor to English?

Excellent question! I ask the associate director the meaning and then strive to maintain the flavor. It is a very difficult process but it has to be done.

Same with songs, I always call /mail the lyricist because I might interpret their thoughts differently. I strongly feel songs should not be in prose order as it kills the most ethnic flavour of our cinema at the same time the rhyming should not be contrived but go with the flow.

Both Karky and Vivek (of 36V fame) have been very appreciative of my subs adding soul to their original Tamil version.

Request to producers
Please give enough time for subtitling keeping in mind overseas visuals should be ready a week before release. Also please use Scrabble /UFO besides Qube to ensure screening in Mumbai where a large section of audience do not know Tamil /Malayalam/Telugu and are eager to watch our films.

Wishing you the best Rekhs!

Jyothsna Bhavanishankar

Tweet