No swachha Kannada here

While a section of the Sandalwood film industry finds it difficult to understand their filmmakers love for English titles for Kannada films, the new-age film makers are open to all sorts of experiments even in titles. Bengaluru Chronicle reports on the trend in Sandalwood’s love for English titles and  tag lines.

“Recently a new film titled Raja Loves Radhe was launched starring Chinnari Muttha fame and national award winning actor Vijay Raghavendra.

The film which is set to release is directed by Rajashekar and produced by noted film maker HLN Raj, who last made a film titled Kotigond Love Story which was a flop. The film team felt that the title Raja Loves Radhe would be appropriate as the film revolves around a slum boy who falls in love with a girl from a rich family,” says  Vijay Baramasagara, the dialogue writer for the film.

He further adds that the affinity towards making use of English words in the title does not mean that there are no suitable words in Kannada. “In fact, there are so many meaningful Kannada titles but sometimes the subject of the movie and the fact that catchy words are easily understandable by the audience non Kannada speaking audience make them popular. “For instance, Krishna loves Radhe may sound  mythological for a.  commercial film (which is based on a slum boy falling in love with a rich girl) the title Raja Loves Radhe sounds catchy.”

Many veteran directors feel that this trend is not new but the only difference is that it was not unnecessarily used in the past. “This is not only limited to Kananda films, but almost all other language films in the country have embraced this trend. Some words sound good in English, which is universal such as love.

The title of the film is way too important. It crisply convey the story and the genre of the film. However, these days the titles do not have  any connection with the film itself,” says director Prashanth.

Sensing this issue, the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC) had in the past banned the use of English words in the titles to promote Kannada films. However, the ban remained ineffective and  soon English love made its way back in titles were back for films.

Padmvathi, a film critic points out that titles alone cannot be a problem but the concern should be towards using swachha Kananda dialogue in the films. “I sometimes wonder whether I am watching a Kannada film or an English film with too many dialogues in English. This is the key area which needs to be dealt with. Everything seems artificial including the writing part of the film making. Whereas, the subtitles or the tag lines are sometimes silly with no creativity. Most of them are a copy-paste of popular phrases from the Internet,” she adds.