Bishal S., a 26-year-old tech professional from Agartala, Tripura, has developed Bhasha, an AI-powered mobile app that teaches over a dozen Indian languages, including Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, and even Sanskrit. Starting as a side project using Google Translate APIs, Bhasha has now grown into a full-fledged platform with 25,000 users — almost entirely built by Bishal himself. “I just wanted something like Duolingo, but for Indian languages,” Bishal told AIM, highlighting his motivation behind the app.
Unlike popular language learning apps like Duolingo, which primarily teach English to Indian users, Bhasha takes an opposite approach. It helps travelers and migrants quickly learn local Indian languages to handle everyday tasks such as greetings, navigation, and simple interactions. Bishal credits a major boost in the app’s accuracy and pronunciation features to switching from Google’s APIs to the government’s BHASHINI platform, part of the Digital India initiative. “Google’s tools just weren’t cutting it. With Bhashini, I can do justice to the languages,” he said.
AI plays a central role in Bhasha’s development — Bishal revealed that about 90% of the app’s code was written using AI tools like Claude, which also assist in generating structured lessons across multiple languages. Despite the impressive technology and growing user base, Bishal has faced limited interest from investors. He attributes this to not having a background from prestigious institutes like IIT or working with FAANG companies. “I’m not from IIT. I didn’t work at a FAANG company. So I’m invisible to them. This way, I don’t have to chase growth. I can just focus on building,” he shared.
Bishal’s vision is ambitious: he wants Bhasha to become the go-to platform for learning any Indian language and eventually expand its reach beyond India. His dedication to creating accessible language tools for a diverse country like India highlights how technology and AI can democratize learning and foster cultural connection across regions.
