Generate Punjabi subtitles for your Telugu videos

From the Telugu script to Gurmukhi

Telugu is written in the Telugu script and Punjabi in Gurmukhi, so the exported file uses a different writing system from the audio that produced it. The subtitle formats handle that — SRT and VTT are plain text and carry any script — but the font in whatever plays the file has to cover it.

This is the most common reason a Punjabi subtitle track looks correct in an editor and shows boxes or blanks on a device. Test on the target platform before you publish a batch.

How Telugu audio becomes Punjabi subtitles

Audio in Telugu (తెలుగు) is transcribed first, then translated into Punjabi (ਪੰਜਾਬੀ). Because the translation runs on the transcript rather than on the audio, the Punjabi subtitle file keeps the timings of the original Telugu speech — each line appears at the moment it was actually said.

Why translate Telugu video into Punjabi

Telugu is spoken principally in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana; Punjabi in Indian Punjab, and in Pakistan where it is written in Shahmukhi. A Punjabi subtitle track is what lets one recording reach both audiences without re-recording, re-editing or dubbing it.

Because subtitles are a separate file rather than part of the picture, you can attach several language tracks to the same video and let viewers pick.

About the Telugu audio

Telugu's two main regional varieties — broadly Coastal Andhra and Telangana — differ enough in everyday vocabulary that a listener can place a speaker within a sentence. Transcription records what was said rather than standardising to either.

About the Punjabi subtitles

Transcription here produces Gurmukhi, the script used in Indian Punjab. Punjabi spoken in Pakistan is conventionally written in the Perso-Arabic Shahmukhi script instead — the speech is largely mutually intelligible, but the two scripts are not interchangeable in a subtitle file.

What a Telugu to Punjabi subtitle file looks like

Four lines of Telugu speech, transcribed and translated, as they come out of the exported SRT. The timings are the Telugu speaker's — translation does not move them, which is why the file drops onto the original video unchanged.

1
00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:03,240
ਆਉਣ ਲਈ ਸਾਰਿਆਂ ਦਾ ਧੰਨਵਾਦ।

2
00:00:03,600 --> 00:00:06,120
ਕੀ ਤੁਹਾਨੂੰ ਮੈਂ ਸਾਫ਼ ਸੁਣਾਈ ਦੇ ਰਿਹਾ ਹਾਂ?

3
00:00:06,480 --> 00:00:09,300
ਮੈਂ ਥੋੜ੍ਹੀ ਦੇਰ ਵਿੱਚ ਵੇਰਵੇ ਸਾਂਝੇ ਕਰਾਂਗਾ।

4
00:00:09,700 --> 00:00:12,040
ਆਪਣੇ ਸਵਾਲ ਹੇਠਾਂ ਲਿਖੋ।

What to check before publishing

• Names and places, which translation handles less reliably than ordinary prose.
• Idiom — a phrase that is natural in Telugu may need loosening to read well in Punjabi.
• That Gurmukhi renders in your player, not just in the editor you exported from.
• Timing on fast exchanges, where two speakers overlap.