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A bid for inclusivity gone wrong?
On July 7th 2021, Netflix announced the launch of its 'India South' account. Amidst an increased focus on South Indian movies, the OTT platform launched the account - which is separate from the Netflix India account exclusively to promote content from Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada movies.
Vanakkam. Namaskaram. Swagatham. Namaskara ๐
โ Netflix India South (@Netflix_INSouth) July 7, 2021
The account however, has irked some Twitter users who felt that it may have been unnecessary to create a separate account. A user suggested the OTT giant could have just given more air time to existing content instead of creating a whole new account for it.
Firstly, I'm annoyed @NetflixIndia had to make a separate Netflix South India channel. Aim should be giving enough airtime to the cinema from the southern states so you don't need another twitter. Makes it divisive. Here's main Netflix india (hindi) and here's South India. Why https://t.co/9FvvAy0zD6
โ Walnut Crumble ๐ฎ๐ณ (@walnut_crumble) July 12, 2021
@NetflixIndia what in the hell do you think youโre doing? ๐ญ if inclusion comes through the creation of a separate identity, itโs not really inclusion, is it? https://t.co/JJMCNrlzfa
โ shaila (@kindashai) July 8, 2021
Another user on Twitter elucidated that the account alone wasn't the cause of annoyance with users. The newly released 'South Anthem' featured artistes NJ, Arivu, SIRI and Hanumankind. Arivu a Tamil singer popularly known for his track 'Enjoy Enjaami' had to rap in Telugu.
The two languages are distinctly different from each other and users were quick to point out that Arivu, a native Tamil speaker wasn't able to get the pronunciations of the words right.
The next day, a video was released featuring rappers singing in all four south Indian languages- Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu. The Telugu rap was done by Arivu, the popular Tamil rapper, loaded with mispronunciations. The backlash was swift. pic.twitter.com/R5KuX0GX2a
โ Karthik Cheboli (@karthikcheboli) July 11, 2021
The user also pointed out that the tweets that the Netflix India account had put up content on their social media channels that appeared as if it had been taken straight from Google Translate.
Another meaningless Telugu tweet that made it clear that they were just translating from some other language. pic.twitter.com/F5JRw50oaK
โ Karthik Cheboli (@karthikcheboli) July 11, 2021
