How to Fix Hindi Text Breaking in Premiere Pro & After Effects

The Problem: Broken Matras and Disconnected Letters

You are editing a video in Adobe Premiere Pro or After Effects. You copy a perfectly formatted Hindi sentence from Google Translate or a script document. You create a text layer, paste it in, and suddenly it is ruined.

The 'ि' (chhoti ee ki matra) appears after the consonant instead of before it. Half-letters (like in 'क्या') split into full letters with a halant ('क्‌या'). The text is completely unreadable to a native Hindi speaker.

Why Does This Happen?

By default, Adobe video editing software is configured to render Western languages (English, Spanish, French) which read linearly from left to right.

Complex Indic scripts like Devanagari (Hindi, Marathi, Nepali) do not render linearly. Vowels often jump over consonants, and letters combine to form entirely new shapes (conjuncts). If the software's text engine is not explicitly told to look for these complex rules, it just renders the characters one by one, resulting in broken text.

Solution 1: Enable the South Asian Text Engine (For Unicode/Mangal)

If you are using modern Unicode fonts like Mangal, Gautami, or Adobe's built-in Adobe Devanagari, you can fix this in the settings.

In Premiere Pro (CC 2020 and newer):

1. Go to Edit > Preferences > Graphics (On Mac: Premiere Pro > Preferences > Graphics).
2. Under the "Text Engine" section, change the selection from "European and East Asian" to "South Asian and Middle Eastern".
3. Crucial Step: You must restart Premiere Pro. Changes will not affect existing text layers, only new ones created after the restart.

In After Effects:

1. Go to Edit > Preferences > Type.
2. Select "South Asian and Middle Eastern".
3. Restart After Effects.

Once enabled, when you paste Unicode Hindi, the matras and conjuncts will render perfectly.

Solution 2: The Legacy Font Method (Walkman Chanakya / Kruti Dev)

What if your client or creative director demands a specific stylized Hindi font like Walkman Chanakya or Kruti Dev? These are legacy ASCII fonts, and enabling the South Asian text engine will not fix them. In fact, pasting Unicode text into a Chanakya layer will just result in English gibberish.

To use these premium legacy fonts without the text breaking, you must use a converter:

1. Do not paste directly. Take your Unicode Hindi text and paste it into our Unicode to Chanakya Converter below.
2. Convert the Text. The converter will rearrange the text logically. It will physically move the 'ि' to the left side of the consonant so that when the legacy font is applied, it looks correct.
3. Paste the Output. Copy the generated English-looking text from the converter.
4. Apply the Font. Paste it into Premiere Pro and set the font to Walkman Chanakya.

The text will now render beautifully, exactly as intended, without any broken matras or disconnected conjuncts. (If you're still confused about the difference, read our guide on Mangal vs Chanakya.)