Film on Kittel: Techie's cinematic tribute to author of first Kannada-English dictionary

Time of India

21-07-2025

Bengaluru: Long before modern digital tools and standardised linguistic references, a remarkable milestone in the history of the Kannada language was quietly achieved in the late 19th century.
Perhaps no other Dravidian languages found a lexicographer then, but in Kannada, a comprehensive Kannada-English dictionary was published way back in 1894 by German missionary Ferdinand Kittel, paving the way for future studies in Kannada linguistics. While Kittel and his works have taken a backseat over the last 130 years, a Mysuru-based techie-turned-filmmaker, Prashant Pandit, has brought back the memories of Kittel in his latest non-fiction and period film, The Word and the Teacher (Das Wort und Der Lehrer), recollecting the life and works of Kittel both in Germany and Karnataka.
The film will be screened at Bangalore International Centre (BIC), Domlur, from 11am to 1pm on July 27.
Indian languages always fascinated Pandit, who worked at Hewlett-Packard (HP). His interest in the evolution of languages and scripts made him dive deep into the linguistic world, and that was when he came across Kittel's work. "From being an outsider to the language to publishing the first comprehensive dictionary comprising prominent dialects, Kittel did remarkable work in Kannada.
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Now it is a lot easier to pick up any language.
But in the 1870s, barring some level of conversational Kannada, it was humanly impossible for an outsider to master the language and bring out a dictionary of 70,000 words! I was curious to know how Kittel learnt Kannada so clearly and took up the project," Pandit recollected his journey, which started in 2020.
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Planning to make a 15–20-minute film on Kittel initially, Pandit began scouting for details from Mangaluru, Madikeri, Dharwad, Ooty, and Germany.
But his extensive research during the Covid-19 pandemic opened several unexpected details about Kittel's life, works, and contributions to Kannada language and literature. "Then I was convinced that a short film format would not do justice to the man who devoted his entire life to Kannada, and decided to produce a full feature-length film, tracing his journey from Resterhafe on the northwestern coast of Germany to Canara (Karnataka), along with a few of my friends who helped me with the film.
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The 80-minute, tri-lingual period film, shot in various locations where Kittel lived and worked both in south India and Germany, has adopted the first-person narration technique. "Documentaries usually have anecdotal references, interviews, or soundbites along with visuals. But our film does not feature any of these, and Kittel himself narrates his life and works based on his own letters to his kids and superiors throughout the film.
I wanted it to be realistic, authentic, and there should not be any room for fictional fantasies. We have included archival photographs from the 19th century, folk songs, and poems penned and translated by Kittel," Pandit explained.
Being a developer, Pandit, during his research visits to Mangaluru and other places, discovered that Kittel used unique fonts in all the typefaces of Kannada.
"All of these were designed and cast in Europe and brought to India.
Aesthetically, they were eye-catching and pleasing for readers. Then it struck me, what if we develop the same into modern-day digital fonts as part of Indic computing. Subsequently, I brought out these unique digital fonts based on Kittel's typefaces and named it 'Karnataka F Kittel font' after him. This Unicode font is free of charge and available on the open-source platform," Pandit explained.
"Barring a few write-ups and a few doctoral theses, there are not many details available about his work and life here. Out of his 71 years, Kittel spent about 40-45 years in Karnataka. After his missionary work, when Kittel was sent back, the Britishers recalled him. In fact, his dictionary was the first-ever crowd-funded project as it was funded by the Mysore kings, British officers, and other philanthropists. From the day he landed in Karnataka till the publication, he literally noted down every word in multiple dialects of south, north, and coastal Karnataka.
Some of the words even have descriptions spanning 2-3 pages!" Pandit said.