Localizing for India: Beyond Hindi and English
Localizing for India means more than Hindi and English. See which regional languages, scripts, and cultural cues actually move Indian audiences, with real examples.
Most "India strategies" stop at two languages: Hindi for reach, English for everything else. That plan looks complete on a slide, and falls apart the moment you look at where India’s internet growth is actually coming from and going. Multiple industry studies - including IAMAI and KPMG-Google research over the past years - have consistently found that a majority of India’s internet users, especially outside the top metro cities, prefer consuming content in their own language rather than English, and that local-language content earns measurably higher trust and engagement. This guide looks at what "localizing for India" actually covers once you go past Hindi and English, with concrete examples of where a Hindi-plus-English plan quietly leaves most of the country out.
Why "Hindi plus English" Undercounts India’s Real Audience
India recognizes 22 scheduled languages in its Constitution, spread across states that were themselves organized along linguistic lines - Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, West Bengal, and others. Hindi is the most widely spoken of these, but it is not a first language for large parts of the south and east ("East" refers to Assam, Sikkim, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura). Platforms built specifically around this reality - ShareChat and Dailyhunt are two well-known examples - which grew by serving regional-language users directly, rather than treating them as an English-language audience that hadn’t caught up yet.
Which Regions Actually Need Their Own Language Strategy? (A Few Examples)
A handful of the language markets that a Hindi-plus-English plan grossly misses:
- Tamil Nadu - Tamil, its own script and grammar, distinct from Hindi and from other South Indian languages (Dravidian, not Indo-Aryan).
- Karnataka - Kannada, again a separate script and language family (Dravidian, not Indo-Aryan).
- Telangana & Andhra Pradesh - Telugu, one of the largest language populations in the country.
- West Bengal - Bengali, with its own script and a strong preference for local-language media.
- Maharashtra - Marathi, spoken alongside Hindi and English in a market that’s often wrongly treated as Hindi-first.
- Kerala, Gujarat, Punjab, Odisha, Assam - Malayalam, Gujarati, Punjabi (Gurmukhi script), Odia, and Assamese round out the major regional markets, each with its own peculiar script, nuances and conventions.
At Semantics Trans Pvt. Ltd., the most regularly requested languages are Hindi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Marathi, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Urdu, besides some of the common regional dialects such as Tulu, Bhojpuri, Maithili, Rajasthani, Naga, Garo, Khasi, Sikkimese (Bhutia), and the less common (rare) dialects such Santhali, Mundari, Awadhi etc.
What Localization Actually Covers Beyond Translating the Words
Localizing for India means adapting script, tone, currency and date formats, and cultural reference points for a specific regional audience - not swapping English words for their equivalents in another language. A few concrete examples: currency written as ₹1,00,000 (one lakh) rather than 100,000; dates as DD/MM/YYYY; and the level of formality changing by language - Tamil and Bengali both carry a formal/informal "you" distinction that a literal translation tool routinely gets wrong.
Festival anchoring is one of the clearest examples of the difference. A campaign built around Diwali as "the" festival of togetherness may land fine in Hindi-speaking states, but Tamil Nadu’s equivalent seasonal anchor is Pongal, Kerala’s is Onam, West Bengal’s is Durga Puja, and parts of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh mark Ugadi - translating the Diwali-anchored tagline word-for-word into Tamil or Malayalam keeps the words, but completely loses the occasion the audience actually celebrates.
An FMCG manufacturer launched a discount scheme at the time of Diwali festival. The brochure had to be localized separately for North Indian states (for Hindi) and the rest of Indian states, leading to 9 different localizations, besides the standard transcreation. So what we did was to transcreate into Hindi and then we furnished the English (alongwith the Hindi translation) to every other linguist. And importantly, the timing of the scheme was different for different states.
Common Localization Mistakes/Blunders that Brands "may" make in India
- Treating Hindi as a stand-in for "Indian," instead of one of several major first languages.
- Running content through literal translation instead of transcreation, which misses idiom, humor, and formality register.
- Reusing one "South Indian" version across Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam - four distinct languages and scripts, not one.
- Anchoring every seasonal campaign to Diwali, regardless of which state the audience is actually in.
- Skipping native-speaker review, so script rendering, line breaks, or font support issues ship uncaught.
A Practical Process for Localizing (Not Just Translating) for India
- Map your actual audience by state and language - not by "India" as a single market.
- Identify script, script direction, and font/rendering requirements for each language you’re targeting.
- Localize tone, idioms, and cultural reference points - including which regional festival or occasion a campaign should anchor to.
- Adapt currency, unit, and number formatting to local convention (e.g., lakh/crore etc.).
- Test with native speakers from the target region before publishing - not just the translator who produced the draft.
Localizing for India is less about how many languages you can list on a slide and more about whether the version a reader in Coimbatore or Kolkata actually feels like it was written for them.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Hindi is the most widely spoken language in India, but a large share of the population, particularly in the south and east, does not use it as a first language. Treating Hindi as a stand-alone for "Indian" misses those audiences entirely.
Translation converts words. Localization adapts tone, formality, script rendering, currency and date formats, and cultural reference points - such as which regional festival a campaign is anchored to - for a specific audience.
No, never. Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, and Malayalam are four distinct languages with different scripts and different grammar. A single "South Indian" version reads as generic to all four audiences rather than native to any of them.
It depends on where the target audience actually lives and which platforms they use. [Ideally for any company intending to cover the entire India, the standard 10 languages are a MUST.]
Yes indeed it is. It needs more time and contemplation in creatively conveying the same concept in the target language, without sounding literal. Otherwise the translation may be correct, but the impact is completely lost. So, in most cases, a per word rate doesn’t apply, it may usually be a flat cost depending on the extent of creativity required. Besides, all translators are not adept in handling such creative translations (also referred to as "Transcreation"), so we need to be cautious about using translators who are experienced in handling advertisements and marketing oriented texts.
Ready for a Precise Quote?
Tell us your languages and content type, and we'll scope the right approach for your budget and timeline.