Hansal Mehta calls Succession comparisons ;Lazy', says Netflix’s Family Business is its own beast

Hansal Mehta calls Succession comparisons ;Lazy', says Netflix’s Family Business is its own beast

• Hansal Mehta says Family Business is not inspired by Succession or Billions
• The series focuses on Indian family-run businesses and their unique challenges
• Family Business aims to stand apart from Western corporate dramas

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Director and co-creator Hansal Mehta has firmly shut down early comparisons between Netflix’s upcoming series Family Business and global corporate dramas like Succession and Billions, calling the chatter “lazy” and reductive.

The series was announced as part of Netflix’s Next On Netflix 2026 India slate, and almost immediately drew parallels to its Western counterparts due to its corporate setting and family power struggles. Mehta, however, believes such comparisons miss the point entirely. According to him, the presence of boardrooms, wealth, and internal family conflict does not automatically place every corporate drama in the shadow of international hits.

Mehta has stressed that Family Business is a deeply Indian story, shaped by the country’s unique economic transitions, generational wealth battles, and emotional fault lines within family-run enterprises. “A corporate backdrop doesn’t mean it’s inspired by or borrowing from anything else,” he has said, adding that Indian business families operate within a very different social and cultural ecosystem. Their conflicts are influenced as much by legacy, loyalty, and tradition as they are by ambition and power.

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While acknowledging his admiration for shows like Succession and Billions, Mehta clarified that appreciation does not translate into imitation. He pointed out that global corporate dramas are rooted in Western capitalism and boardroom politics, whereas Family Business draws from lived Indian realities, including succession anxiety, moral compromises, and the emotional cost of keeping a family empire intact.

Sources close to the show describe Family Business as less about spectacle and sharp one-liners, and more about the slow burn of personal relationships unraveling under financial pressure. The series reportedly explores how business decisions seep into private lives, reshaping marriages, sibling bonds, and parent-child dynamics in uncomfortable ways.

With Family Business, Mehta continues his long-standing interest in morally complex characters navigating flawed systems. The director has consistently gravitated towards stories where institutions and individuals collide, and this series appears to extend that thematic obsession into the corporate world.

As Netflix expands its Indian slate with more ambitious, locally grounded originals, Family Business positions itself not as an Indian answer to a Western hit, but as a story confident enough to stand on its own terms.