india

Updated: Jun 15, 2019 00:03 IST

The ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB) has issued an advisory to all private television channels to carry credits at the end of programmes in the language in which the programmes are telecast for the benefit of viewers who cannot read English. The channels will be free to also carry the credits in English.

Union MIB minister Prakash Javadekar tweeted that this was being done to promote Indian languages. He said the government was not “restricting” the channels to use only Hindi or regional languages, but “adding” more languages. A similar order will be issued to cinemas as well, he said.

“It has come to the notice of ministry of information and broadcasting that several Hindi and Regional Language TV channels display the castings/credits/titles of Hindi and Regional language TV serials only in English. This practice tends to deprive people versed with Hindi and Regional languages of the valuable information about casting of TV serials/programmes,” the advisory reads.

In January, HT had reported that the MIB had written to the Indian Motion Pictures Association, Film and Producers Guild of India, Film Federation of India and Indian Films and TV Producers’ Council Of India, among others, to run titles and credits in Hindi for all Hindi feature films.

The ministry had underlined that since these films were made in Hindi, people not familiar with English should not be deprived of information about actors and crew and other production details.