Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos unsure if launching in India with Sacred Game was ideal, says something ‘more populist' might have worked better: ‘If I did it all over again…'

Indian Express

07-06-2025

Sacred Games was the first Indian original series that Netflix ever produced. Starring Saif Ali Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, the show was critically acclaimed, and largely seen as the conduit to a new era of bolder, more challenging programming. The series was based on the book of the same name by Vikram Chandra, and was co-directed by Vikramaditya Motwane and Anurag Kashyap. While it remains one of the most acclaimed series that the Indian streaming industry has produced, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said that it was perhaps not the ideal way to enter the Indian market.
In an appearance on Nikhil Kamath's podcast, Sarandos admitted that the Indian market is a difficult one to crack, mainly because Indian consumers are inherently suspicious of subscription. Netflix has taken a more populist approach to programming in recent years, and has struck deals with the likes of TV mainstays Kapil Sharma and Ekta Kapoor. During the conversation, Sarandos spoke about Sacred Games, and suggested that it might have painted Netflix out to be too high-brow for the Indian consumer.
Also read – Vikramaditya Motwane reacts to Saif Ali Khan trashing Sacred Games season 2, explains 'main reason' it didn't meet expectations
Asked about India as a market, and the reality that Netflix doesn't have a significant share of it yet, Sarandos said, 'It took us a couple of years to get the product-market fit right. Our very first Indian original show was Sacred Games. And I thought, 'This is going to be great. People in India love movies. This is a TV show that feels as big as a movie, it has movie stars.' What's interesting about it is that it was very, very novel, but what I didn't understand that we were introducing a brand new kind of entertainment in a country the size of India.'
He continued, 'For me, if I did it all over again, would I have done Sacred Games a couple of years later, and did things that were more populist (instead)? Maybe. But we knew that India was going to be a slower journey to get to where we wanted to get to. But it's a great prize, at the end of the day. The addressable market is growing in the next couple of years in India, so it's exciting.'
Sacred Games was unofficially cancelled after two seasons. Kashyap said that plans for a third season were underway, but Netflix got cold feet after the controversy that erupted around Prime Video's Tandav. He told Mashable India, 'Vikram Motwane was driving Sacred Games. Ten days before I was supposed to go shoot Mukkabaaz, he asked me to come on board. I told him I was always interested, but they had a problem with me. Some local people had told them that I didn't have a female audience. It was my zone, and they eventually came around… A season three was supposed to come out, but they shut it down, Netflix would know why.'
He also criticised Sarandos and Netflix in a social media post following the success of Adolescence, and said that the Indian branch of the streamer wouldn't dare greenlight something like it. 'Netflix India is a totally opposite sh**show. If they were pitched this, most probably they would have rejected it or turned it into a 90 minute film (that too seems like an impossibility because it doesn't have an ending that is black and white),' he wrote.