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Multilingual Candidate Screening Phone Calls: A How-To Guide

Bolti Team·

Bolti is a voice AI platform for production-ready conversational phone agents — and one of its clearest applications is running candidate screening calls in Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Gujarati, and 80+ other languages, at ₹7/min with no per-seat recruiter cost.

If your hiring covers Tier 2/3 cities or blue-collar roles, you already know the problem: most candidates in Nagpur, Coimbatore, or Surat are far more comfortable speaking in their native language than in English. Generic voice AI tools rarely handle this well. This guide shows you exactly how to set up multilingual screening calls using Bolti's HR Screening module.

What Is a Multilingual Candidate Screening Phone Call?

A multilingual candidate screening phone call is an automated outbound call where a voice AI agent conducts a structured interview with a candidate — asking role-specific questions, listening to answers, and logging results — entirely in the candidate's preferred language.

With Bolti, the agent handles real phone lines (not VoIP apps), manages natural interruptions, and produces structured output for your recruiter to review. No scheduling tag. No spreadsheet glue. No recruiter sitting on hold.

Why Regional Language Screening Matters for Indian Hiring

Hiring at scale across India is not a single-language problem.

  • A logistics company hiring delivery partners in Chennai needs Tamil.
  • A microfinance firm onboarding field agents in Pune needs Marathi.
  • A manufacturing plant screening workers in Ahmedabad needs Gujarati.
  • A BPO hiring for Hindi-belt markets needs Bhojpuri-comfortable Hindi.

When your screening call is in English, you lose candidates who are perfectly qualified but not fluent. You also get inaccurate signal — a nervous candidate struggling with English looks weaker than they are.

Bolti supports 80+ languages at the STT (speech-to-text) and TTS (text-to-speech) layer, including Indian-language voice providers like SarvamAI and SmallestAI. You configure the language per agent, so you can run a Hindi-language agent for one role and a Tamil-language agent for another — in the same workspace, simultaneously.

Explore how this works end-to-end on Bolti's HR screening use-case page.

How to Set Up a Multilingual Screening Agent in Bolti

The setup lives under Agents → HR Screening in the Bolti dashboard. Here's the full flow:

Step 1: Create a Role

  1. Go to Agents → HR Screening → click + New Role.
  2. Enter the role title (e.g. "Field Sales Executive – Maharashtra").
  3. Paste the full job description. The agent uses this verbatim during the call, so include responsibilities, must-haves, and anything you want it to probe.
  4. Click Create.

Step 2: Configure a Language-Specific Screening Agent

This is where multilingual support comes in. In the Configuration strip on the role page:

  • Select a screening agent from your workspace.
  • Make sure the agent's STT language is set to your target language (e.g. Hindi, Tamil, Marathi).
  • Choose a TTS voice from a provider that supports that language — SarvamAI and SmallestAI both cover major Indian languages.
  • Write or edit the agent's system prompt in the target language, or instruct it to respond in that language regardless of how the candidate speaks.

The agent prompt must include four template variables that Bolti fills at call time:

Variable What Bolti fills in
{{ candidate_name }} Candidate's name from the parsed CV
{{ jd_text }} The role's job description
{{ custom_questions }} Your list of screening questions
{{ candidate_details }} Summarised resume bullet points

If any variable is missing from the prompt, the dashboard shows a red Missing: … badge. Fix the prompt and it flips to green Ready.

Step 3: Add Custom Screening Questions

Add role-specific questions in the language your candidates will hear them. Examples for a Hindi-language field sales role:

  • "Aapne pehle kisi FMCG company mein kaam kiya hai?"
  • "Aap ek din mein kitne outlets cover kar sakte hain?"
  • "Kya aapke paas apna two-wheeler hai?"

Each question becomes a bullet inside {{ custom_questions }} and the agent works through them during the call.

Step 4: Upload Candidate CVs

Bolti parses each uploaded CV, summarises it into bullet points, and lists candidates under the role. You'll see parse status move from pending → parsed → refined in the candidates table.

For blue-collar hiring where candidates may not have formal CVs, you can manually enter name, phone, and a few basic details instead.

Step 5: Trigger Outbound Calls

Two options:

  • Schedule outbound calls for a specific date and time — Bolti dials each candidate automatically.
  • Send a scheduling link via WhatsApp or email — the candidate self-books a slot and Bolti calls them when it lands.

Outbound calls go through your connected telephony provider — Twilio, Plivo, Exotel, or a SIP trunk you bring. Indian businesses often use Exotel numbers, which Bolti supports natively.

You can also trigger calls programmatically via the REST API:

POST /workspaces/{workspace_id}/agents/{agent_id}/outbound-call
{
  "to_number": "+919876543210",
  "agent_phone_number_id": "..."
}

This means your ATS or HRMS can fire screening calls directly — no manual dashboard work at all.

What Happens During the Call

Bolti's voice pipeline runs STT → LLM → TTS in a continuous loop, with sub-second turn-taking. Practically, this means:

  • The agent greets the candidate by name in their language.
  • It works through the JD context and custom questions.
  • It handles interruptions naturally — if the candidate cuts in, the agent stops and listens.
  • Telephony-grade noise cancellation strips line noise, which matters a lot on mobile networks in smaller cities.
  • The full call is transcribed and the structured output is logged back to the candidate's record.

Recruiters see status update live: none → link_sent → call_scheduled → call_completed. No chasing. No manual notes.

Running Multiple Languages in Parallel

If you're hiring for the same role across multiple states, create one role per language variant:

  • "Delivery Partner – Tamil Nadu" → Tamil-language agent
  • "Delivery Partner – West Bengal" → Bengali-language agent
  • "Delivery Partner – UP/Bihar" → Hindi-language agent

Each role has its own agent configuration, its own candidate list, and its own call schedule. They run concurrently — a single Bolti agent can handle many simultaneous calls, so volume isn't a constraint.

See Bolti's pricing page for how per-minute billing works across concurrent call volumes.

Set Up Your First Multilingual Screening Agent

Bolti gives you 50 free minutes to test your screening setup — enough to run 10–15 candidate calls and validate the language quality before committing. After that, it's ₹7/min pay-as-you-go with no monthly minimums.

If you're hiring for a Hindi-belt or regional-language role right now, you can have a working screening agent live in under 30 minutes. Start your free trial and build your first HR screening agent.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which Indian languages does Bolti support for candidate screening calls?

Bolti supports Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Gujarati, English, and 80+ other languages globally. Indian-language TTS is available through providers like SarvamAI and SmallestAI, which are natively integrated into Bolti's voice pipeline.

How much does it cost to run multilingual screening calls with Bolti?

Bolti charges ₹7/min on a pay-as-you-go basis with no monthly minimums. New accounts get 50 free minutes to test their setup. There are no per-seat recruiter fees — you pay only for call time.

Can Bolti screen candidates who don't have a formal CV?

Yes. While Bolti can parse uploaded CVs automatically, you can also manually enter a candidate's name, phone number, and basic details. This makes it practical for blue-collar and Tier 2/3 city hiring where formal resumes are uncommon.

Can I run screening calls in multiple languages for the same role simultaneously?

Yes. You create one role per language variant in Bolti's HR Screening module — each with its own language-configured agent and candidate list. These run concurrently, so you can screen candidates in Tamil, Hindi, and Bengali at the same time.

Does Bolti integrate with existing ATS or HRMS platforms?

Bolti exposes a REST API where every dashboard action is also an API call, including triggering outbound screening calls. This means your ATS or HRMS can fire calls directly by hitting the outbound-call endpoint with the candidate's number and agent ID.