So it's been 5 years since I made subtitling a profession. Started out when subtitling was mostly considered a waste of time and irrelevant in Malayalam cinema, by trying to convince many filmmakers & producers who were unaware of its importance and going around asking for work.
There were some movies being subtitled, but they had to be done in Mumbai or Chennai and that further discouraged many from getting it done.
Today, subtitles are almost mandatory even for the lowest budget films and short films and the whole country is raving about our mainstream cinema since they can all watch it with subtitles and all of them are asking for more and more Malayalam cinema reccommendations.
Subtitles also helped our cinema reach a huge audience all over the world through wide international releases all over the world on the same day and the arrival of OTT platforms that could take all kinds of our films all across the globe at the same time.
I was lucky enough to work on films by most favourite living filmmakers across generations, some of the biggest blockbusters, national award winning films and some of the most acclaimed and path breaking films in these past 5 years.
And I thank each and every one of them for trusting me with their work. Please continue to do that! 🤗
I'm really happy that many more people have ventured into subtitling and have started considering it as a serious profession.
My only request to them is to not underquote for the job that they are doing & thereby bring down the standard rate for subtiling, which is already quite low, considering the amount of work that has to be done. In a world of screenshots, quality is a must & it doesn't come cheap!
I am now completing my 150th film as a subtitler. A film that would be another first for the Malayalam film industry. Can't wait for you all to see it.
Thank you @cvsarathi for giving me #Kunjiramayanam and getting me into subtitling as a professional. Thank you VK Prakash sir for giving me #Beautiful, the very first film I subtitled.
My father Ranjit Ramachandran kept pushing me, my mother Maya Ranjit has subtitled the songs of many of my movies, my wife @SaiKris65926417 and my brother @VishakhRanjit have also constantly helped me in subtitling work. So, instead of assistants, I have a subtitling kudumbam.
By working on the dialogues of such a wide range of films by such talented filmmakers, I think I've been able to hone my screenwriting skills as well and I hope I get to showcase that too, soon enough. ☺️☺️☺️
