Your opinion about what Nawaz is saying here? - Page 6

In South India also many film makers and technicians come from "English Medium" background. But still they are quite proficient in their mother tongue.

English may have become a primary language for many of us and it is quite alright use it in work place amongst colleagues and also for official communications.

Films are different. Film is a piece of art. The main purpose of any art piece is conveying the thoughts and ideas of the film maker to the audience through conversations and visuals. Language plays a very important role there.

If you are making a film in a particular language it is important that you use that language when you are communicating with the team involved in the film making. Creating a right atmosphere for the actors is important and the language used on the sets contributes to that atmosphere.

---------------------

As for the quality of the spoken English used by the current generation the less the better it is.It's unbearable. They don't know their mother tongue well and their knowledge of English is also poor. They think that adding some faux accent to their speech is enough to make them look cool. This is true about the current generation of young actors.

Originally posted by: aparnauma

In South India also many film makers and technicians come from "English Medium" background. But still they are quite proficient in their mother tongue.

English may have become a primary language for many of us and it is quite alright use it in work place amongst colleagues and also for official communications.

Films are different. Film is a piece of art. The main purpose of any art piece is conveying the thoughts and ideas of the film maker to the audience through conversations and visuals. Language plays a very important role there.

If you are making a film in a particular language it is important that you use that language when you are communicating with the team involved in the film making. Creating a right atmosphere for the actors is important and the language used on the sets contributes to that atmosphere.

---------------------

As for the quality of the spoken English used by the current generation the less the better it is.It's unbearable. They don't know their mother tongue well and their knowledge of English is also poor. They think that adding some faux accent to their speech is enough to make them look cool. This is true about the current generation of young actors.

Point is not about actors not knowing the language. His point was about communication on set happening in English.

But when there are people speaking multiple languages on set, most of who know English, it's natural for communication to happen in English regardless of the language in which the film is made.

He should be accommodated for sure, but he can't really demand artists from the rest of India learn Hindi and Devanagiri for his convenience. It's not the same in regional language industries because most of the artists and technicians usually belong to the same region. Bollywood hires people from all over.

Natural progression of what Nawaz is demanding would be 1) exclusion of people who don't belong to the Hindi belt. 2) accommodation of those people with separate scripts and translation, which would circle back to current situation because most of the current gen of stars actually communicate in English in their real lives.

Originally posted by: HearMeRoar

Point is not about actors not knowing the language. His point was about communication on set happening in English.

But when there are people speaking multiple languages on set, most of who know English, it's natural for communication to happen in English regardless of the language in which the film is made.

He should be accommodated for sure, but he can't really demand artists from the rest of India learn Hindi and Devanagiri for his convenience. It's not the same in regional language industries because most of the artists and technicians usually belong to the same region. Bollywood hires people from all over.

Natural progression of what Nawaz is demanding would be 1) exclusion of people who don't belong to the Hindi belt. 2) accommodation of those people with separate scripts and translation, which would circle back to current situation because most of the current gen of stars actually communicate in English in their real lives.

He did not say that the actors from non Hindi speaking areas should learn Hindi and Devanagri. He is only talking about people coming from Hindi belt, making Hindi film and not using Hindi as the language of communication between themselves.

Coming to South Indian film industry. At one point Tamil Telugu Malayalam and Kannada all four language film industries were located in Chennai. Most of the South Indian films regardless of the language were produced from Chennai only. All the technicians actors regardless of what their mother tongue is were very fluent in Tamil.

In fact most of the south Indian actors even today can speak another south Indian language apart from their mother tongue and young stars of south India speak very good English.

Even all the actresses from Hindi belt who were imported by south Indian industry learnt South Indian languages. Tamanna Tapsi for example are so good.

It is also about the respect for the language you are using while you are at work.

So I fail to see why these young stars from Hindi belt find it so difficult to speak Hindi on the sets of Hindi film.

It sounds very extreme and entitled, both -- like he wants to impose his personal preferences to the entire industry, and even rename it from Bollywood to Hindi Movie Industry.

May hell freeze over before we have to refer to Bollywood as "Hindi Film Industry" ... geez.

Bollywood also has a lot of non-Indian actors, doesn't it? How are they ever gonna read and understand Devnagari scripts? Common sense tells me that they should have scripts in both English and Devnagari versions so that actors can pick up whichever they find comfortable. Why would anyone with a iota of common sense wanna impose Devnagari scripts on everyone working in B'wood?

Originally posted by: aparnauma

He did not say that the actors from non Hindi speaking areas should learn Hindi and Devanagri. He is only talking about people coming from Hindi belt, making Hindi film and not using Hindi as the language of communication between themselves.

Coming to South Indian film industry. At one point Tamil Telugu Malayalam and Kannada all four language film industries were located in Chennai. Most of the South Indian films regardless of the language were produced from Chennai only. All the technicians actors regardless of what their mother tongue is were very fluent in Tamil.

In fact most of the south Indian actors even today can speak another south Indian language apart from their mother tongue and young stars of south India speak very good English.

Even all the actresses from Hindi belt who were imported by south Indian industry learnt South Indian languages. Tamanna Tapsi for example are so good.

It is also about the respect for the language you are using while you are at work.

So I fail to see why these young stars from Hindi belt find it so difficult to speak Hindi on the sets of Hindi film.

I agree that the actors should make an effort to learn the language. But for every Tamanna and Tapsee, there have been umpteen other starlets who have flitted through without knowing the language.

Wirh re: star kids. When someone grows up communicating in English, as many of these upper class kids do, they continue the same language. It is, for all purposes, their first language. Don't think it's up to Nawaz to dictate otherwise.

With re: south Indians. Sridevi hardly spoke any Hindi. Did that take away from her art?

The reverse: Salil Chowdhury remains one of Kerala's beloved composers. He was Bengali.

Nor did Nawaz say that only about Hindi speakers. He made no such differentiation in what he said.

Some very nice arguments here. Thank you everyone 👍

There's something else that I've noticed and although it's not specifically related to the matter in discussion here but this affects me a lot.

I sense an air of superiority about being well versed in English in some people as if knowing English makes u superior from the rest of non-english proficient people. I seem to notice a lack of pride of being well versed in your mother tongue, especially if its Hindi. South Indians are still more proud of their mother tongue despite knowing English well.

If a person can talk or write well in English he's automatically deemed intellectually superior even though he may be as dumb as Alia, Ananaya, kareena or sonam who are well versed in English and proudly state that they don't know Hindi much.

Also using pure Hindi or Sanskrit words is often ridiculed in movies or series and that ridicule is copied in real life by people who get inspiration from tv and films. I sense there's a lack in pride about knowing their mother tongue well in Hindi speaking people. On the contrary, knowing good English is a matter of pride. I don't see such behaviour in some other countries who are proud of their own language despite knowing English ex. France Germany etc.

I see that on IF too. People who can't converse or write good english are looked down upon here.

Originally posted by: HearMeRoar

I agree that the actors should make an effort to learn the language. But for every Tamanna and Tapsee, there have been umpteen other starlets who have flitted through without knowing the language.

Wirh re: star kids. When someone grows up communicating in English, as many of these upper class kids do, they continue the same language. It is, for all purposes, their first language. Don't think it's up to Nawaz to dictate otherwise.

With re: south Indians. Sridevi hardly spoke any Hindi. Did that take away from her art?

The reverse: Salil Chowdhury remains one of Kerala's beloved composers. He was Bengali.

Nor did Nawaz say that only about Hindi speakers. He made no such differentiation in what he said.

Ramcharan and NTR junior both are star kids and they both attended some very elite private schools. Ramcharan from the way he sounds it's obvious that he thinks in English. NTR jr is equally comfortable with English and Telugu. But another fact is that they both are very fluent in Tamil because they grew up in Chennai when Telugu films were being made there.

Chennai is a cosmopolitan city then too.

The reason why Tapsee and Tamanna are still around doing projects in multiple languages and the other starlets flitting in and fading out is obvious.

Sridevi was exceptional. There'll never be anyone like her.

The point here is the respect given/not given to the language in which they are working and not about the knowledge or understanding of the language.

If Telugu Malayalam Kannada people could learn to communicate in Tamil why this star kids find it difficult to communicate in Hindi? When it is the language spoken by their grand parents and parents? It's not like they grew up some where in Non Hindi speaking region of the world.

The reason is simple. They want to sound hip and trendy. But what they don't realise is behind all that faux outlandish accents it is quite easy to make out their knowledge about the language.

BANG ON 100% agree with him. It's a desi people thing in USA .If two people are talking in any Indian lauguage see another desi all of sudden they will start talking in English.

https://youtu.be/Mc2GllP-d9E

Originally posted by: SmittenKitten

It sounds very extreme and entitled, both -- like he wants to impose his personal preferences to the entire industry, and even rename it from Bollywood to Hindi Movie Industry.

May hell freeze over before we have to refer to Bollywood as "Hindi Film Industry" ... geez.

Bollywood also has a lot of non-Indian actors, doesn't it? How are they ever gonna read and understand Devnagari scripts? Common sense tells me that they should have scripts in both English and Devnagari versions so that actors can pick up whichever they find comfortable. Why would anyone with a iota of common sense wanna impose Devnagari scripts on everyone working in B'wood?

Bollywood" IS Hindi film industry, it is not even up for debate and is nothing wrong in calling Hindi films as Hindi films. A lot of them have been trying to stop the usage of word 'Bollywood' given how outdated the term is. Infact, the Telugu Film Industry has successfully managed to call itself TFI and moved over from the outdated term 'Tollywood'. And off late, these guys are insisting to call it Indian film industry and refer to actors as Indian film actors.

Also no, "Bollywood" doesnt have majority of Non Indian actors. It is filled with Indians only. And there is nothing extreme in what he is saying because since many years, people who are most comfortable in Hindi are looked down upon in many professions, while English became the tool to build self-confidence. And forget Hindi, I'd instead say that more attempts should be made by people to learn the language of the land where they are working, be it Marathi, Bengali, Hindi , Tamil, Telugu depending on the state, if not fluently then atleast the basics of it. All these things might take time but efforts should be made in that direction only. A Telugu person should not feel compelled to speak in English when he works in a Telugu film set