The Malayalam film Thallumaala, starring Tovino Thomas, Kalyani Priyadarshan and Shine Tom Chacko in the lead roles, was an Onam treat on Netflix. The film started streaming on the platform from September 11. But in less than a day it landed in an unseemly row. The company that did the subtitling in English for the film has accused the platform of 'butchering' the lines.
"The English subtitles of the movie Thallumaala, which we delivered to the Netflix team, were reviewed line-by-line and approved by the creative director and one of the writers, Mr Muhsin Parari. However, we are deeply saddened to inform you that the current subtitles published on Netflix are a substantially edited, watered-down, butchered version of our work," the statement from Fill in the Blanks, the subtitling company, said.
Thallumaala, directed by Khalid Rahman, was a big hit in theatres.
Netflix should respect the work of subtitle artists
#Thallumaala subtitles issue. pic.twitter.com/x3XWCtrFLmSeptember 12, 2022
The company said several nuances it included in the subtitles went missing in the Netflix version, especially the songs. "They've heavily toned down the songs' subtitles to their literal meanings and made them soulless."
The company also requested OTT platforms to respect its work. “Subtitling, being a creative work, must consider the culture, humour, connotations and local nuances of both the source and target languages. Moreover, we find it unfair and unethical to edit the subtitles without the consent of the subtitle artist/writer/director. We kindly request Netflix and other OTT platforms to abstain from doing this,” the company said.
The team from Fill in the Blanks told a Malayalam news outlet, "We are not looking to start a fire. We want answers. Why did this happen? Was there anything wrong on our part? What needs to change? It's only fair we know this much at least."
This is not the first time when Netflix is faced with such an allegation. When the Korean series Squid Game came out, the platform faced flak from a section of Korean fans for poor subtitles that changed the show's meaning for English-speaking viewers.
According to entrackr.com, "In May 2021, Vivek Ranjit, a screenwriter and subtitle author, said that Netflix had similarly edited down translations he had prepared for Nayattu, a thriller directed by Martin Prakkat."
Netflix has not responded to the allegations till the moment of this being published. But on the site where it explains its subtitling process, the platform says: "Awkward language pulls you out of the viewing experience instead of supporting the experience. Often, these errors are not egregious, but quite subtle in nature. We may reject a file for containing translations that are grammatically correct, but are simply phrases and colloquialisms that are not natural to the viewer."
