With 28 states, a population of 1.3 billion people, and nine union territories, India is a multicultural country and a land of many languages. Currently, India is home to more than 19,000 languages, out of which 22 are official. Besides languages, what sets India apart from the rest is the various cultures and traditions across its regions. Hence, if a company wants to win over this lucrative market and expand its audience, it needs to localize its content as much as possible.
Dubbing is an essential aspect of the entertainment industry. Nowadays, many movies, TV shows, documentaries, interviews, and reality shows are dubbed in the local language of the target audience. Moreover, due to the rise of many global streaming services, like Netflix, Hotstar, and Amazon Prime, the demand for dubbed content has increased at exponential rates. The main motive behind dubbing is to make the content available to people speaking different languages.
Dubbing is not only useful for brands to share their content in different regions of India, but it also helps local people in many ways. Furthermore, according to the YouGov Survey, around eight in ten people claim that they would watch foreign (82%) or regional content (78%) if it is available in their native language.
But, why is there such hype around the dubbed content? Why do people like watching different content in their mother tongues, instead of the original language? We’ve listed some reasons to explain this.
1. Not everybody knows the original language
This is one of the main reasons for people demanding dubbed content. If a business wants to reach different regions of the country, it needs to understand that not everyone speaks the same language. For example, if your original content is in Hindi, and you want to target people of all states in India, then it is crucial to translate your message in their native languages. This is because Hindi is spoken by around 53% of the Indian population. Therefore, if you don’t include dubbing in your marketing strategy, you will be neglecting the rest 47% of the non-Hindi speakers.
2. People can access international content
The demand for content from different countries is increasing rapidly, thanks to the growth of OTT platforms, such as Netflix. According to research, the consumption of dubbed content on this platform is rising at a rate of 120% annually. Furthermore, Netflix’s vice president for international originals, Kelly Luegenbiehl, said at the Berlin Film Festival that most people prefer to watch shows in the original languages with subtitles. But in reality, they will choose to view the dubbed versions. All of this indicates that people around the globe want a wide variety of international shows and movies in their local languages.
Wrapping it up
Dubbed content has become a popular trend today. People look for dubbed movies, series, and other videos because they can relate to the content and enjoy it properly. Even though they know the original language, they still want to watch it in their mother tongue as it makes them feel more comfortable. Also, it helps them get familiar with the various cultures and traditions of different regions of India.
DUBnSUB is a Dubbing, Voice-over and Subtitling company with offices in Germany, France, USA, Myanmar and Head Office in Gurgaon (India). We offer high-quality dubbing services at competitive costs in more than 70 languages. For any requirements/queries, please drop an e-mail at [email protected] or give us a call at +91 124 498 2484.