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Abstract

Any form of audio-visual media utilises specific stylistic elements in order to represent the reality within which the media form is situated. These representations occur through the language and iconography of the media form, which works on stereotypical features that the audience can easily identify. Forming a pivotal part of the media, these representations must be rendered in the translations for a linguistically and culturally diverse audience. Audio-Visual Translation (AVT) has been used since the 1930s to make media accessible. Of the various modalities, subtitling has emerged as the most widespread mode of AVT due to time and cost benefits. However, the subtitling process is restricted by various challenges that can restrict the translation process, especially in terms of transferring culturally specific terms from the source. The verbal or linguistic aspect is merely one dimension of the process, as this form of translation deals not only with relaying information but also with the semiotics and pragmatics of meaning-making. The socio-cultural context of the linguistic element within media forms requires the translators to opt for a set of translation strategies that will best express this context to the audience. Through the examination of the subtitles of the Bollywood film Rocky Aur Rani kii Prem Kahani (2023), the paper will examine the process of AVT and the subtitling decisions made to reveal the cultural nuances embedded within the film that must be translated through subtitling. This forms an analysis framework, which the paper explores in terms of the narrative constructed on the cultural and socio-linguistic identity markers pertinent to audio-visual media.

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