Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos recalls launch of Sacred Games, calls Indian entertainment market 'exciting'

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6 hours ago

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], June 8 (ANI): Nawazuddin Siddiqui's 'Sacred Games' was India's first original web series, directed by Anurag Kashyap and released on Netflix in 2018. The series is considered to have marked a significant shift in India's digital entertainment landscape, underscoring the potential of web series and streaming platforms in India.
Netflix's Co-CEO, Ted Sarandos, recently opened up about the platform's expectations from the Sacred Games, as it was their first big web series venture in India.
In a wide-ranging conversation with Nikhil Kamath on his podcast, CEO Ted Sarandos recalled the platform's early creative choices in India, particularly 'Sacred Games', India's first original web series.
Sarandos noted, "It was very, very novel (Sacred Games), but I didn't realise that we were going to be introducing a brand new kind of entertainment to a country the size of India."
The Netflix co-CEO also acknowledged the broader learning curve of the OTT platforms in India. Despite the early struggles, Sarandos said that he believed in India's huge entertainment market capacity before launching India's first original web series.
"Early on, it took us a couple of years to get the product-market fit right, including payment systems and all those things. We knew that India was going to be a slower journey, but it's a great prize at the end of the day. Right now, you can see how fast Indian households are adopting fixed broadband, big-screen TV is growing - the addressable market in India is exploding in the next couple of years. So it's exciting," said Ted Sarandos at Nikhil Kamath's podcast.
Sarandos also discussed the timing of the show's launch, saying, "If I did it all over again, would I have done Sacred Games a couple of years later? Maybe."
However, this statement didn't sit well with Anurag Kashyap as he believed his directorial 'Sacred Games' was launched at the right time.
Taking to his Instagram handle, Anurag expressed his displeasure, sharing a screenshot of a report on Sarandos' comments on Nikhil Kamath's podcast.
In a post, he wrote, "He should have started with Saas Bahu... he would have done well. Which he is doing now. I always knew the tech guys are dumb when it comes to storytelling, but @tedsarandos is the definition of dumb - that I didn't know. Good to discover that. This explains everything now."
'Sacred Games', starring Saif Ali Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, was widely praised upon its debut and marked a pivotal moment in India's streaming content landscape.
Directed by Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane, the gritty thriller was lauded for its storytelling and production value, although its second season drew mixed reactions, and the series was not continued beyond that. (ANI)