Tune in to Tamil toons

ANOTHER GLOBAL brand hits the Tamil scene. And this time it is going to be `Yabba Dabba Do' with a good deal of Tamil. Flintstones, Jonny Quest, Scooby and Scrappy Doo, Swat Kats, Addams' Family and Captain Planet will all now speak Tamil.

Cartoon Network has decided to make these characters talk the local language from February 28, for two hours a day, on an experimental basis. ``We will be monitoring the response of the children after that. If the children do not like it, we might not have Tamil at all,'' says Ms. Kathy McClure, vice-president, Programming for Turner Entertainment Networks.

Research has indicated that Tamil is the second most preferred language of dubbing in India. The channel launched Hindi speaking toons last year with two hours of content initially. The success of Hindi cartoons made Cartoon Network increase the Hindi content to nine hours.

``We want to localise channel content through dubbing to make it relevant for more and more non-English comprehending audiences,'' Mr. Anshuman Misra, managing director (India and South Asia) Turner International explains, adding it could enable the channel to increase the viewership by 40 per cent.

Acknowledging the difficulties of dubbing into Indian languages, the channel has roped in United Television, one of India's biggest production houses to do the job. ``We have measures of quality control to ensure that dubbing flaws do not happen. But if they do happen, we will only be glad if people let us now,'' says Ms. McClure.

What about Indian children who have picked up English watching cartoons? The channel is not very sure if children should pick up the language by watching cartoons. ``Cartoons are for entertainment. There are other ways for children to pick up the language,'' argues Ms. McClure.

Children can opt for English language if they do want to, for it is up to the cable operator to give the Tamil or the English versions. ``In most cases, the cable operators do understand the market. In Delhi, we found that they were right when they beamed the English cartoons in certain areas,'' the channel maintains.

It worked in Delhi. Only time will tell about Chennai.

By Sudhish Kamath

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