On April 7, Malayalam scriptwriter Vivek Ranjit wrote on his Facebook wall: “From tomorrow, a beautiful family drama, Jacobinte Swargarajyam (Jacob’s Kingdom of Heaven), will be releasing. May this adorable Kingdom of Heaven be the winner of this season. So glad I could also be a small part of it by subtitling it.”
A day later, there was a response from Abhishek Sreekumar, a Chennai-based content writer. “You are doing a fab job. People know you by name. You are uplifting the quality of meaningful cinema. Keep up the good work,” he wrote.
Last month, even Mollywood star Dulquer Salmaan wrote on Twitter: “So glad you are a part of our films and improving our reach.”
The Kochi-based Vivek is developing a reputation of being a good sub-titler. All his recent movies—Charlie, Action Hero Biju, and Kali—have done well outside Kerala. “In fact, Dulquer (the lead actor of Charlie) and Nivin Pauly (lead actor of Action Hero Biju) have a huge fan-following in places like Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai,” says Vivek. “There is a demand among young non-Malayalis to see Malayalam films. I believe one of the reasons is the sub-titling,” he adds.
Earlier, Vivek had to force his friends in Chennai to watch DVDs of Malayalam movies. But now, they hit the theatres willingly.
Usually, Vivek gets the film a month before the release. He views it in a home theatre, and starts sub-titling it. “It is not always a literal translation,” he says. “I aim to be simple and clear. With minimum words, you have to communicate the maximum. The viewer usually sees the image, then reads the dialogue, and waits for the reply from the other character. So there is little time,” he explains.
Normally, people take about one-and-a-half seconds to read a dialogue, and about three seconds if it is a longer one. If it is a speech, the sentences spill over to the next frame. Following the completion of his work, he sends it by mail to the film’s editor, who then uploads it, along with the video and sound file on a digital platform like Qube.
Vivek is happy that Mollywood is changing its attitude towards sub-titling. “Earlier, people never took it seriously,” he says. “Now, they feel that they can expand their market and make good money.”
Vivek, however, wants to sub-title the classics, and for that, he has approached a few television channels offering his services. Most of them have a platform on You Tube, where they screen old movies. While he’s currently busy sub-titling Ranjith’s Leela, Vivek wants to become a director someday.