Confessions of a Subtitle Checker

“People would be stunned hearing me shout out to my boss, ‘Is motherfucker okay or can bastard go?’”

I have the best job in the world—I am paid to watch films! I am a movie buff so I couldn’t have asked for more. In the past one year, I must have watched more than 400 films. As I watch the stories unfold, I have to make sure nothing offensive or abusive is broadcast. That’s my job—to proof-read the subtitles that appear in the movies aired on Sony Pix.

I was earlier part of the aviation industry. But when the channel decided to air subtitled films from September 2009, I came on board. I had to wrap up 100 films as soon as I joined. But even with the deadlines and pressure, the task was loads of fun.

I joined the channel in August last year, and my first few days on the job were extremely amusing. People would be stunned hearing me shout out to my boss, ‘Is motherfucker okay or can bastard go?’ They thought I was abusing him, but I was only checking if these words should be retained in the subtitles. Even now, colleagues call up to check if asterisks should be placed for words like ‘vagina’ and ‘fuck’.

If I am lax in my job, the channel could be reprimanded by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Hence, one has to be very careful and follow the guidelines set by the Censor Board. On some days, I need to google words of abuse in foreign languages. Nothing should escape a subtitle checker. It is not just the profanities, abuses and references to genitals that one has to watch out for. I also need to check the subtitles for grammatical errors and spelling mistakes.

For people aspiring to take this up as a career, one needs to be proficient in English. Also, one needs to have a keen ear for accents. British, American and Irish accents are very different from one another. You need to have a very sharp ear to grasp what people are saying on screen.

(She is senior executive, subtitling at Sony Pix)

As told to Avantika Bhuyan

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