Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, who co-directed the critically acclaimed Sacred Games for Netflix India in 2018, has expressed disappointment with the platform's current direction.
What
- In a new Instagram post, Anurag Kashyap reacted sharply to Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos' recent remarks about the streamer's early days in India.
- Kashyap shared a screenshot of a headline that read: "Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos unsure if launching in India with Sacred Games was ideal, says something 'more populist' might have worked better: 'If I did it all over again...'"
- Responding to this, Kashyap 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 is what I didn't know. Good to discover that. This explains everything now."
- Anurag Kashyap's "Saas Bahu" reference was aimed at the recently announced collaboration between Netflix India and Ekta Kapoor's Balaji Telefilms.
- Ekta became a household name in the 2000s with her hit daily soaps like Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi.
- Actor Lisa Mishra, who recently starred in Netflix India's The Royals, also commented on Kashyap's post: "Everything in OTT is derivative now anyways, and specifically derivative of Sacred Games."
Background
Sarandos had shared his thoughts on Netflix's India entry on Nikhil Kamath's podcast, saying, "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."
Back in March, Kashyap had also called Netflix India a "totally opposite stshow" in a post praising the British psychological crime drama Adolescence on Netflix. Referring to Sarandos' earlier comment about the show, Kashyap wrote, "Now coming to my envy and jealousy. Ted Sarandos (recently put a post where he says - 'Every once and a while one comes along that pushes into brand new territories, defies the limits of creativity and features career defining performances.' "And I hope he means it. Because his on(sic) Netflix.in is a totally opposite s*** show."
In A Nutshell
Anurag Kashyap criticised Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos after he said launching in India with Sacred Games may not have been ideal, suggesting a more populist show would have worked better. Kashyap called Sarandos "the definition of dumb" and accused Netflix India of becoming a "s**thow." He also took a dig at the platform's recent collaboration with Ekta Kapoor, referring to it as a shift toward "Saas Bahu" content.
