Netflix original Sacred Games a huge hit in India, second season in the works

With over a 100,000 searches, India's first Netflix original Sacred Games already features in the Google top trends. After marque shows like Crown and Narcos, the series is turning out to be a game changer for Netflix, and in particular for India’s nascent digital video-on-demand industry.

While Sacred Games has all the quintessential requisites of an entertaining show that combines politics, crime, and drama, the strategic weekend launch of the series worked wonders. “The initial feedback in terms of viewership is more than what any Indian content has ever received on the platform,” said Varun Grover, one of the writers working on the series.

The series has been directed by Vikramaditya Motwane and Anurag Kashyap and written by Grover along with Smita Singh, and Vasanth Nath.

After the eight power-packed episodes people are already talking of the second season. While Grover said they had a second season in mind while putting together the first season, sources in the industry confirm the second season is being written.

The series based on Vikram Chandra’s novel by the same name focuses on Sartaj Singh (played by Saif Ali Khan), a seasoned and cynical police officer, summoned by an anonymous tip one morning, a voice which promises him an opportunity to capture the powerful gangster Ganesh Gaitonde (played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui).

Released across the world with subtitles in Russian, Finnish, Arabic, French, Hebrew, Spanish, German, Dutch, Polish, Turkish, Chinese, Romanian, Swedish, Norwegian, Thai, Japanese, Korean, Italian, and Brazilian Portuguese-Sacred Games is the writer’s attempt to break through clichés.

“Bollywood content has always been associated with song and dance sequences and mushy romance. Thanks to no censor on the digital platform we have had the opportunity to exercise our right to creativity and tried to break stereotypes about content produced from this part of the world,” Grover added.

While the popularity of the show means more audience to the next series, it also adds up to help Netflix see a growth in revenues. According to a Statista survey of ‘Estimated streaming revenues of Netflix in India from 2017 to 2020’Netflix is expected to generate approximately $328.3 million with its Indian streaming segment in 2020.

Does breaking stereotypes stop with one India original series Sacred Games though? No. Netflix has already announced its second original series from India – Ghoul. Again from Anurag Kashyap’s Phantom Films, Ghoul will be a three-part horror story starring Radhika Apte. Ghoul is expected to have an August 24 release and mark Netflix's foray into the horror genre in India.