Thallumaala co-writer Muhsin Parari, alongside the film's subtitles team Anju and Shyam Narayanan TK, have called out Netflix for altering their original subtitles and replacing them with a "substantially edited, watered-down, butchered version."

In a letter addressed to Netflix, Anju and Shyam wrote, "The English subtitles of the movie Thallumaala, which we delivered to the Netflix team, were reviewed line-by-line and approved by the creative director and one of the writers, Mr Muhsin Parari. However, we are deeply saddened to inform you that the current subtitles published on Netflix are a substantially edited, watered-down, butchered version of our work."

The team elaborated that "several nuances included in the subtitles are missing," particularly those in the songs. Requesting Netflix and other OTT platforms to "abstain from doing this," the team added, "They've heavily toned down the songs' subtitles to their literal meanings and made them soulless. Subtitling, being a creative work, must consider the culture, humour, connotations and local nuances of both the source and target languages. Moreover, we find it unfair and unethical to edit the subtitles without the consent of the subtitle artist/writer/director."