Disney Star reaches 700 million viewers across India every month, making it the nation’s storyteller.

The biggest media vehicle at Disney Star’s disposal was their content, which was beamed into the nation’s living rooms every day. But how do we tell stories of inclusion without the words? Hence Words of Pride – a glossary of 246+ words across 7 regional languages, found and taught.

This glossary of 246+ Words of Pride will be used for content creation in 7 regional languages across 70 channels. Effectively delivering not just the narrative but also the means of inclusion to millions of households

Disney Star Network - the nation's storyteller, reaches 700 million viewers monthly, with 20,000+ hours of original content in 9 languages. Present in households, families watch content together, giving us the power to shape narratives. To tell inclusive stories that influence the heart of India.

Their purpose is to ‘Inspire A Billion Imaginations’ with diverse storytelling that drives social change.

However, how does one tell stories of everyone without the right words?

Because the regional words for the 125+ million Indians from the LGBTQIA+ community seemed to be forgotten by most.

Even though same-sex relationships between consenting adults were decriminalized, the hate crimes and biases continued.

Words of Pride – A step towards visibility, equality and confidence

People’s native language is what makes them feel visible and closer to their identity, family and society.

Hence, only language had the power to shape the world.

Legally free but societally confined:

In a landscape, where only 1% of the LGBTQIA+ community in India identified with the English words and derogatory words in the 700 spoken and 22 official languages became popular - it pushed the community further away, impacting their self-esteem and sense of belonging.

The invisibility of the right words in their mother-tongue led to further isolation within families and communities.

Even with the decriminalization of Section 377, which made same-sex relations between consenting adults lawful, they were legally free but societally confined.

Language has the power to shape the world. It’s beautiful how a list of words strung together can tell stories of people, cultures and identities.

However, when language ignores issues of power and equity that shape people’s lives, it only foments further exclusion of marginalized people.

Because without the right words, how does one educate and overturn centuries of negative attitudes and perceptions?

The world is evolving, and it’s time our words did too.

Reclaiming Respect Through Language

A lexicon of 246 respectful words for the community, across 7 regional Indian languages - found and taught.

We realized that in a landscape, where only 1% of the LGBTQIA+ community in India identified with the English words and derogatory words in the 700 spoken and 22 official languages became popular - it pushed the community further away, impacting their self-esteem and sense of belonging.

So to find these forgotten words we brought together a collective of 150+ language experts, scholars and members of the LGBTQIA+ community to create a unique vernacular dictionary, with which everyone could identify themselves with pride in their native tongue, and the words never fell short again.

A campaign that highlights the convergence of language and respect - we pledged to update India’s daily vocabulary.

It was launched on the anniversary of the historic Section 377’s repeal.

Indian regional languages already had the words. They were all but forgotten.

30 months of research and 7000 hours of collective collaboration by 150 folks from the community, allies, collectives, language experts, linguists, writers, culture makers and legal teams went into identifying the words for the community in 7 different languages.

We had three audience segments:

India at large: Our objective was also to create authentic allies, and co-opt existing ones by educating them.

The LGTBQIA+ community: To help them express themselves with pride.

Culture Makers: To make these words common parlance, we had to reach those who are responsible in creating change through their content - authors, lyricists, content writers and advertisers.

Hence our media mix looked like:

Our content: to maximize awareness and influence with majority Indians

Social Media & Influencers: to create a sense of community and spark authentic conversations

On-ground events: that helped us induce action

Words of Pride: a website glossary of respectful words in 7 regional languages was launched on the 5th anniversary of the repeal of Section 377, detailed with the pronunciations and sample sentences to demonstrate their usage.

It was first launched at the Disney Star office urging all content creators to begin using these words in the 20,000+ hours of content created by the network.

Bollywood’s biggest LGBTQIA+ persona, ace director, Karan Johar (although identity has never been confirmed), launched the campaign on social media.

Influencers urged people to learn and use inclusive language, creating a sense of pride and allyship online.

It was spoken of by superstar Mohanlal, host of India’s biggest reality TV show Big Boss and coincided with the Supreme Court of India releasing a handbook to combat gender stereotypes.

The conversation was taken up with culture makers at Jaipur LitFest and the Advertising Standards Council of India.

The campaign reached over 53.5 Million Indians and garnered 55+ Million video views including 196.6K+ engagements.

Disney Star India’s website traffic jumped 171% over the previous month.

An impressive 45% of the views on the platform were organic, which is 5x the industry benchmark, showcasing genuine interest and engagement from the community and the wider society as well.

While other brands were getting lambasted for “tokenism” and being deemed “woke”, the campaign saw a 92.2% positive sentiment.

In an era characterized by evolving inclusivity, the ‘Words of Pride’ campaign stands as a potent catalyst for transformation.

One of the oldest civilisations in the world, the 700 spoken, 22 official Indian regional languages already had all the words. Words that were all but forgotten.

And while the respectful words are commonly known in English, less than 1% of the LGBTQIA+ community in India speaks English as their first language. In a landscape like this, it’s no wonder that derogatory words became popular, pushing the community further away, impacting their self-esteem and sense of belonging.

So even with the repeal of the archaic law criminalizing same-sex relationships, hate crime, biases and casual sexism continued. Because people didn’t know the respectful words.

Words of Pride aims to change this because we believe that when we have the right words is when everyone feels like they belong.