Talk of Hindi and movies like Hindi Medium and English Vinglish come to mind. Bollywood has done its bit to popularise Hindi language

Mona

For any language to survive and thrive, it’s important that it remains the language of the masses. And the Hindi film industry has done its significant bit in this domain.

Pegged at Rs 183 billion, Bollywood remains the significant soft power with a wide reach. The industry has won its fair share of cinephiles, and spread some true Hindi love.

India with its two official languages – Hindi and English – has its people get into some conflicts at times – a struggle shown beautifully in films like Hindi Medium and English Vinglish. The famous Akshay Kumar’s monologue in Namastey London is a glimpse of incredible India. Bollywood time and again brings many such dialogues and memorable songs to the fore.

Actors like Pankaj Tripathi and Manoj Bajpayee use Hindi for their social media posts, keeping their connect with the language and their massive fan following.

Wishing The Tribune readers Hindi Diwas in chaste Hindi, Pankaj Tripathi says, “My mother tongue is Bhojpuri but I have studied in a Hindi medium school, and this is the language that’s been my rozi roti.”

While talking about how Hindi films have garnered more followers for the language, Tripathi says, “Our effort is also to include the words in dialogues that are fast disappearing from life so that those words remain alive.” Script writer Sanjay Chauhan credits the film industry being one significant medium for spread of the language. “Be it the South, or North-East, Hindi songs are popular in nooks and crannies of our country and this is the biggest certificate of industry’s contribution.”

“If you want to kill a language, keep it limited to textbooks,” says bilingual author, and filmmaker Pankaj Dubey. “Hindi films have bridged the gap between books and people, and winning millennials who are more disposed towards English. Add to it Indians settled abroad in more than 150 countries who use Hindi films to keep their second and third generations connected to their roots.”

While Dubey can write with equal ease in Hindi and English, the younger lot, though as much in love with Hindi is banking on Roman English for screenplays and dialogues. “Our multi-cultural society has come together through Bollywood, with Hindi talking the top spot as the universal language of entertainment,” says actor and writer Sukhmani J Sadana.

“Different communities and strata are bound by some Hindi love!” says Sukhmani who admits using Roman English in her film and web show writing.

While Hindi has been accepted as the first language of our cinema, with changing times, other Indian languages can make it to cinema too, feels writer Garima Pura.

Garima says, “Indian cinema has been predominantly Hindi and done its fair bit to keep people connected to the language.”

As for her language style, she calls it ‘thinking in Hindi and writing in Roman English’. “But trust me I can give the best English spellings for any Hindi words,” she laughs.

Lyricist Munna Dhiman states, “As the language of popular cinema Hindi has kept the masses connected with it, even though it’s Hindustani!”