The AD version is a result of the joint effort by the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) and 20th Century Fox. The work to produce the AD version was taken up after an RNIB survey among blind or partially sighted people of Asian origin found that over 55 per cent of respondents were more likely to watch Bollywood films, if AD was provided.
AD is as important to blind and partially sighted people as subtitles are to those with hearing problems. It is an additional narration that fits between passages of dialogue to describe action sequences, body language, costume and scenery, allowing the viewer to understand exactly what is happening on the screen. MNIK is also the first film to feature AD in Hindi.
Martin Bromfield, Executive Director at 20th Century Fox, said: “English speaking AD has been available on all our films for some time now, so we felt it was natural to progress and offer Hindi AD on our first collaboration with Bollywood.”
20th Century Fox, which has partnered with director Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions, first developed an English audio descriptive track with the help from RNIB and Deluxe Digital Studios, which was then translated before being recorded by a Hindi speaking audio describer, in time for the second week of release.
“Around 700 films are produced by Bollywood every year, and our research tells us that blind and partially sighted fans want AD in these films. So we are delighted that Fox have worked with us to allow blind and partially sighted people to enjoy this much-anticipated release along with their sighted family and friends. We hope other studios will follow Fox’s lead making MNIK the first of many audio described Bollywood films,” says Fazilet Hadi, Director (Inclusive Society) of RNIB.
