Netflix believes in India and its story, puts record money on local content

MUMBAI: Even as there are less than a million paid subscribers of Netflix in India, the top honchos at the American over-the-top (OTT) video service see great potential in the market, which is why the company has made its highest investment in local original production in India.

“It is the fastest investment we have ever made and the largest investment we've made to date in local original programming,” Ted Sarandos, chief content officer at Netflix, told ET.


Sarandos, who is in India for the launch of Netflix’ first Indian original, Scared Games’, is pretty satisfied with the inroads that the company has made in the country since its entry in early 2016.

“We were in Latin America for four years before we launched our first original programme. Here, we announced the show less than two years back,” Sarandos said. “We are building content which is not just popular in India but can be popular all over the world. That has been our strategy globally and I think we're gonna do the same in India.”

Since its launch, the American video streaming service has quickly ramped up its library in the country. It has also signed content deals with a few production houses, and has announced seven originals in India.

Simran Sethi, director - international originals at Netflix, said, “Since our launch we have ramped up bigger and faster (in India) than anywhere else in the world. We've doubled our catalogue. Starting with ‘Lust Stories’ last month, we have a steady drumbeat of content coming.”

On India as a market, Sarandos said the company is happy to see the hours of watching increase dramatically since it launched here. “And that gives us the confidence to continue to invest at a high level. It’s not that we are happy. It's that the viewers are happy and that's great,” he said.

He said the most distinguishing feature of Netflix among OTT players is the thousands of engineers who make sure that the service works every time a viewer push play. “It works across 1,600 different devices around the world, no matter what your internet speed is. It works when you push play — that is core to the brand promise,” he said.

Netflix had launched the download feature keeping in mind Indian infrastructure, as the company felt the desire in India would be very high. “It's turned out to be very successful for us all over the world,” Sarandos said.

Netflix has 20 employees at its office in India and Sarandos expects this number to grow rapidly, and as the company is doing enough projects in India, it will soon need a studio to support production.

On talent from India, Sethi said Netflix is working not just with established stars and production houses like Phantom Films and Red Chillies, but also with young content makers. “We have a diversity of content from a diverse range of producers and writers and directors,” he said. “We are working with some young filmmakers also who have come in with amazing ideas. It's really about finding storytellers who have passion and a vision and a hunger to make amazing content for the Indian audience,” Sethi said.

Sarandos said Netflix has an ability to create global stars. “Look at Ursula (Corberó), who stars as the female lead in Spanish show ‘La casa de papel’ (Money Heist)… she had a handful of social media followers and all in Spain just six months ago. And now because of Netflix, she has millions and primarily outside of Spain. She's a global TV sensation because of Netflix. We think we'll be able to bring the same to ‘Sacred Games’ as well in terms of awareness outside of India,” Sarandos said.

Based on Vikram Chandra’s 2006 thriller novel of the same name, Scared Games is produced in partnership with Phantom Films. It features Saif Ali Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Radhika Apte in key roles. The series will be available on Netflix from July 6.