Lost in Translation

‘Mere paas Amma hai!’

Awkwardly-translated ads run the risk of becoming futile..


There’s something wrong with the headline — it just doesn’t sound right. But this is the kind of communication we’re being subjected to. If you don’t believe me, watch the literal translation of the Big TV commercial inTamil — the one that communicates 32 cinema halls, riding on the legendary (and done to death) dialogue between Shashi Kapoor and Amitabh Bachchan in Deewaar. In Hindi, there’s no reason why it wouldn’t work. In Tamil, it’s another story and a perplexing one at that.

If the target group (TG) for this Tamil TVC is Hindi-speaking (or at least viewing) Chennaiites who will choose a DTH service because it speaks to them in Hindi, what was the need for a high-decibel campaign on a leading Tamil satellite channel? Perhaps the brand is targeting the Tamil-viewing population that lives outside Tamil Nadu? Is that a demarcated segment at all? If it is, is it big enough to warrant these spends? Even the tagline ‘Ho toh BIG ho’ (If it has to be, it has to be big) has been unimaginatively translated as ‘Irundha BIG-ga irukkanum’.

This is one of many TVCs that have managed to get lost in translation. People who speak both languages will cringe at the unintended humour that these commercials offer. One pities the agency that faced the challenge of taking a Hindi-skewed national campaign down South.


Let’s look at a different category. Fanta’s orangy blast story was refreshingly told with Laga Kya earlier this year. Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh are said to be more inclined towards fruit-based flavours of soft drinks, making them strategically important markets for a brand such as Fanta. But when Laga Kya got translated into Tamil, the voiceover said: ‘Pattucha’.

Surely, it was a compromise arrived at for want of a better word (or words). There’s nothing wrong with the translation per se. The problem is that the orangy ‘blast’ got restricted to the visuals. For those who don’t speak the language, Pattucha to the average Tamilian could refer to the most gentle of touches. A brand that has created some truly delightful advertising, and had even roped in an actress as the brand ambassador, Trisha for its South markets, was let down by one inadequate word.

When the media budgets in regional markets are huge, why don’t brands spare a thought for the messaging that goes out?

The little details that make a big difference are begging for attention. Maggi 2-minute noodles has a very decent commercial on air now, in Tamil. The effort that has gone into the adaptation (from Hindi) has yielded a good final product. There’s little room for complaint, except for the fact that it ends with: ‘Taste bhi, health bhi’.

Contextually, there are some ads, and smart lines conceived for the pan-India audience, which cannot make as much of an impact when translated into regional languages. When a Virgin Mobile’s ‘Think Hatke’ becomes a ‘Maathi Yosi’, it loses some of its impact, but is still a better effort at reaching those audiences than persisting with the Hindi tagline. When a Philips DVD player’s ‘Plays anything, almost anything’ becomes ‘Edhaiyum play seyyum, Kita thatta edhaiyum’, one wonders who should be prosecuted.

Some brands have stuck to one treatment for national releases with telling effect in recent times. The Airtel commercial now on air, for its Voice SMS service, is one such example. There’s Shah Rukh Khan, Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor. This star cast works well on Tamil television too, with the entire commercial being in English and the sign-off communicating the product offering being in Tamil.

And then there’s the Samsung mobile commercial, which tries to ride on Don dialogue ‘Isko gayab karna mushkil hi nahin, namumkin hai’. Quite like Big TV’s ‘Mere paas maa hai’, this one too has been literally translated into ‘Idhai maraiya vaippadhu kashtam mattum alla, mudiyave mudiyadhu’. The line does get the message across. But what was the compulsion to use a literal translation? What is more important — sticking to the national TVC word-for-word or connecting with the audience with advertising they can relate to?

Is there an assumption here that popular dialogues from Hindi movies will connect with audiences of regional languages? Creators of such advertising adaptations should take a good look at the strong regional film industries in Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu, to understand the context of this argument better.

Arguably, Chennai is becoming an increasingly cosmopolitan city, and without doubt Amitabh Bachchan is fairly popular here too. He was popular enough for a dubbed version of KBC to bring in the viewers, but there was Rs 1 crore as incentive. When you have money to give away, he can go out and buy the Tamil viewer’s attention better than most. But when he has to sell your product, don’t take things for granted.

If Tamil Nadu is a two-language market, the languages are Tamil and English.

Tamil is not the only language that demands customised messaging in mass marketing efforts. I have refrained from using examples from other languages for a reason: It is a crime to claim to understand a consumer in whose language you cannot think.

Thanks to Gokul Krishnamurthy
ref : The Hindu Business Line Nov2008.

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