CHAPTER TWO

HINGLISH AS A “FILMI” LANGUAGE

DARIA SZYMURA

Nowadays Bollywood is a very important part of Indian culture. People watch

films, use some quotes and dialogues in their everyday speech, treat actors and
actresses as gods and goddesses. Language of the film also looms large in the
society. As the two official languages of India are Hindi and English, it has naturally
developed into the mix of those, which is named “Hinglish”. I would like to show
how the phenomenon of Hinglish is used in the Indian film industry, to be specific
– in Bollywood, and what are the reasons for using Hinglish as the filmi language.

Hinglish

Hinglish is the phenomenon occurring among Indian people, usually bilingual

native speakers of Hindi and English. “[O]ne notices in contemporary urban India,
that ‘bilinguals’ often use a mixed form of Hindi and English, popularly known as
‘Hinglish’”.1 It is very important that Hinglish is actually not Hindi with English
words; as observed by Dr Jayanta Kar Sharma it is “English that includes many
Hindi words, i.e. not Hindi that includes many English words”.2
The definition provided by the online dictionary says that Hinglish is “[a] blend
of Hindi and English, in particular a variety of English used by speakers of Hindi,
characterized by frequent use of Hindi vocabulary or constructions”3; on the other
hand, Cambridge Dictionary provide users with the following definition: “a mixture

1 Rana Parshad, Vineeta Chand, Neha Sinha and Nitu Kumari, What is India speaking: The
‘Hinglish’ invasion. (2014), p. 2
2 Dr Jayanta Kar Sharma, Hinglishisation of English: Hinglish, The Language of 21st Century.

International Journal of English Language, Literature and Humanities, vol. 3 (2015), pp.
329, 330
3 Oxford English Dictionary, https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/hinglish
 2 Chapter Two

of the languages Hindi and English, especially the type of English used by speakers
of Hindi”.4
“While the part on ‘English’ refers to the insertion of English words and phrases
in the Hindi text of cinema from the 1950s to the 1980s, Hinglish is the code-
switched language of mainstream Hindi cinema after the 1990s”.5 The beginnings of
Hinglish could be set in 2005, when the term “Hinglish” appeared in the media. Dr
Jayanta Kar Sharma writes that “[i]n June of 2005, the term Hinglish hit the
headlines across the world when it was reported that more than 26 neologisms
included in a new edition of the Collins English Dictionary were of Hindi origin”.6

Hinglish in Indian society

In today’s India there is an increasing tendency to use Hinglish. Many people in

India can speak both English and Hindi, and that leads to the use of Hinglish. There
are some dictionaries of Hinglish mostly online, for instance , the most famous is
“The Queen’s Hinglish. How to speak pukka” by Baljinder K. Mahal. 7 This is the
dictionary which consists of words borrowed from Hindi, English and other Indian
languages, and of neologisms created by the speakers of Hinglish.
Hinglish is often used among the educated members of Indian society, because
these people can use both Hindi and English fluently and they are able to mix those
two languages. Knowing both official languages of India well, it is easier to acquire
Hinglish words, understand them and use them in an appropriate contexts. Another
group which speaks Hinglish is the group of young people.
Mostly, this phenomenon in Indian society can be seen in various spheres of life,
first of all, in the Internet, where everybody can share his or her thoughts and
comments. Ordinary people using the Internet have a command of Hinglish. Indian
bloggers, journalists, authors also use Hinglish in their posts, articles, books.
Hinglish is also present in newspapers, in the social media. To the group of Hinglish
users belong also politicians, and actors; in short, many public figures.
Is it very rare to hear Hinglish from villagers, beggars, or dalits. They usually do
not know English and speak only Hindi or the other Indian language, because of the
lack of education, and low position in the social system. However, conversation with
people having a low social status is not very common, because they do not rather
talk with people having a higher position in the society.

4 Cambridge Dictionary,
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/hinglish?fallbackFrom=english-polish
5 Rita Kothari and Rupert Snell, eds., Chutnefying English: The Phenomenon of Hinglish

(2011), p. 113
6 Kar Sharma, Hinglishisation of English: Hinglish, The Language of 21 st Century, p. 333
7 Baljinder K. Mahal, The Queen’s Hinglish. How to Speak Pukka (Glasgow: HarperCollins

Publisher, 2006)
 Chapter Two 3

The problem arises when Hinglish speaking people try to talk with people
speaking only Hindi. It is said that “[w]hen Hinglish speakers interact with
monolingual Hindi speakers, the Hinglish speaker will out-compete the bilingual,
only needing to introduce a few English words to the Hindi speaker in order to
provoke the latters conversion to Hinglish status”.8
If tourists come to India, Indian people would definitely talk with them in
Hinglish, even if those foreigners could speak Hindi. They would use English,
adding Hindi and typical Hinglish words to the conversation to make an impression
on the interlocutor. Although it is known from the history that Indian people did not
want the English to stay in India, it is important for them to know English well, thus
they try to impress foreigners and improve their language skills. Hinglish is used
very often in that case, because it consists of many cultural words used equally with
English in particular contexts.

Hinglish as a “filmi” language

According to Baljinder K. Mahal, the Hinglish adjective “filmi” denotes “1.

melodramatic; reminiscent of or suitable for a typical Indian film, 2. of or relating to
film or the film industry”.9
Hinglish, as well as Hindi-English code-switching, occurs in titles, songs, and
dialogues in Bollywood productions. This phenomenon is present mostly in the
newest productions, which are more “western” than the older ones. The good
example is the title of the song from the film “Dostana” (2008), “Desi Girl”, or the
film “Desi Boyz” (2011). The adjective “desi” in Hinglish means “1. Authentically
South Asian, 2. a person considered to be authentically South Asian”.10 Thus, the
title of the song “Desi Girl” can be translated as “Indian Girl”, but it is sometimes
translated as “Traditional Girl”. The good way is to know Hinglish word and leave
it without translating, because it is sometimes problematic to make a good translation
of certain Hinglish words.

Hinglish in titles

The use of Hinglish in titles is very common in Indian cinematography, mostly

in Bollywood. There are three types of the use of Hinglish in films’ titles. The first
one is a title written fully in the Latin alphabet, for instance “Shor in the City”, in
which there is a Hindi noun शोर (‘shor’) that means ‘noise’. The second type is a
mix of the Latin alphabet and the Hindi alphabet called Devanagri. This type may

8 Parshad, Chand, Sinha and Kumari, What is India speaking: The ‘Hinglish’ invasion, p. 13
9 Mahal, The Queen’s Hinglish, p. 40
10 Mahal, The Queen’s Hinglish, p. 35
 4 Chapter Two

be seen in the film “Gangs of Wasseypur”. In this title the name of the city
Wasseypur is written in Devanagri (“Gangs of वसे पुर”). The third type of the title
is the one written entirely in Devanagri, for instance “जब वी मेट” (‘jab we met’).
The English title translated literally would be ‘When We Met’. It is not often used,
unless there is a title given in the Latin alphabet under or above the one in Devanagri.
In Hinglish different parts of speech may be replaced by their equivalents in the
other language. The part of speech that is most frequently changed is a noun, as it is
the easiest part of speech to be replaced.

Hinglish in dialogues

Nowadays, Hinglish can be found in more and more screenplays of Indian films.
The films should be understandable for both Hindi and English speakers in India and
abroad. Moreover, some plots of contemporary Indian films are located in the UK,
the USA, or in any other country, so that the dialogues sound more realistic. The
characters in the film are trying to adapt to the country in which they are living, that
is why they start speaking English, mixing it with their native language.
Hinglish in films is quite a new phenomenon, because it is still being created by
its users. Similarly to users of Hinglish, the characters of the film also insert Hinglish
sentences into their utterances. The example comes from the film “2 States” which
is based on the book written by Chetan Bhagat.

Example 1.

“Aur… beer hai?”

“Gujarat dry state hai”
“Kyon?”
“Gandhiji ka janm …”
“Aur wo beer ki against the?”
“Accha, toh coming back to my question: baki South Indians mein aur Tamilians
mein kya fark hota hai?”
“Bahut fark hota hai. Thank you. For example, Tamil Brahmins non-vege nahin
khate. Main shuddh Brahmin household se hoon.”11

The underlined words and phrases are the English ones inserted into the
utterance, creating Hinglish utterances. As it may be seen, there are quite many of
them in the dialogue which means that Hinglish becomes widely used in the film.
Although it is only a small part of a dialogue, such utterances may be found in other
scenes in this film, as well as in other Indian productions.

11 2 States, dir. Abhishek Verman, UTV Motion Pictures, 2014

 Chapter Two 5

In the dialogue above it may be observed that English words are mostly proper
names, common phrases used in English in everyday speech. There are no
grammatical changes to be done, there is only one word that gains a female gender.
The English word ‘beer’ gained in this dialogue the female gender which is known
because of the Hindi postposition ‘ki’ that stands just after the word ‘beer’. The
ending ‘i’ is characteristic for female gender in Hindi, whereas the male gender has
the ending ‘a’. In this example this change is the only one grammatical change in the
presented dialogue.

The phenomenon of Hinglish is currently developing and changing. Apart from

being used in everyday life, Hinglish is very often used in Indian films, creating a
new trend and a new direction of the cinematography in India. Growing popularity
of Indian productions encourages producers and screenwriters in trying to use
modern language which would be a kind of a mix of two official languages of India.
It is a great possibility that the Hinglish language would in the future replace the use
of Hindi in Indian cinematography and it maybe would even replace the Hindi
language in everyday speech of Indian citizens.

Bibliography:

Cambridge Dictionary,
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/hinglish?fallbackFrom=english-polish (17
Apr. 2018)
Kar Sharma, Dr Jayanta. Hinglishisation of English: Hinglish, The Language of 21st
Century. International Journal of English Language, Literature and Humanities, vol. 3. 2015.
Kothari, Rita and Rupert Snell, eds. Chutnefying English: The Phenomenon of Hinglish.
Penguin India, 2011
Mahal, Baljinder K. The Queen’s Hinglish. How to Speak Pukka. Glasgow: HarperCollins
Publisher, 2006
Oxford English Dictionary, https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/hinglish (17 Apr.
2018)
Parshad, Rana, Vineeta Chand, Neha Sinha and Nitu Kumari. What is India speaking: The
‘Hinglish’ invasion. 2014
(https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/268b/3be0ae64a00ed31284c94bea9072a6e080d7.
pdf) (17 Apr. 2018)
Verman, Abhishek, dir. 2 States. UTV Motion Pictures, 2014
 6 Chapter Two

Summary:

The paper consists of a brief discussion of the phenomenon of Hinglish in Indian

cinematography, which is becoming more widely used in Indian society and mostly
in Indian films. Hinglish as a quite modern phenomenon prevailed the Hindi
language within just few years and may in some time replace the Hindi language,
because of its growing popularity. The term ‘Hinglish’ is introduced, as well as its
role in Indian society. The notion of Hinglish as a “filmi” language is described and
examples of the use of Hinglish in Indian films are presented.

Streszczenie:

Artykuł zawiera krótkie omówienie pojęcia Hinglisz obecnego w indyjskiej

kinematografii. Zjawisko to staje się coraz częściej używane zarówno w
społeczeństwie Indusów, jak i w indyjskich filmach. To stosunkowo nowe zjawisko
w ciągu zaledwie kilku lat zdominowało język hindi i być może w niedługim czasie
z powodu rosnącej popularności zastąpi język hindi. W artykule wprowadzono
termin „Hinglisz”, jak również poruszona została kwestia roli tego zjawiska w
społeczeństwie indyjskim. Opisano także pojęcie „Hinglisz” oraz przykłady jego
użycia w filmach indyjskich.