Streaming giant Netflix's investment in local productions has generated over $2 billion in economic impact from 2021 to 2024 and created 20,000 cast and crew jobs in India, co-CEO Ted Sarandos said on May 3, emphasising the significance of its commitment to local storytelling.
He made these comments during a fireside chat with Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan at World Audio Video Entertainment Summit 2025 (WAVES 2025) in Mumbai.
Sarandos said that people watched about 3 billion hours of Indian content on Netflix around the world in the past year, which translates to about 60 million hours a week. He added that an Indian title also made it into the company’s global top 10 charts every week last year.
Netflix, which began local productions in India with Sacred Games about seven years ago, has since produced around 150 original films and series, filming across 90 different cities in the country.
"India is on the cusp of a big inflection point for a storyteller, the way that Squid Game was that kind of moment for Korea" Sarandos said. Squid Game is currently Netflix's most watched series globally.
Sarandos noted that Korean content originally spoke to a local audiences and diaspora, which was a small audience for a while. "All of a sudden, something comes along to open your eyes. You see a story you haven't seen before, a world you haven't seen before. If you're very satisfied, you want more. That's what we saw with Squid Game and Parasite" he said.
"I think India is about to have that. You're seeing these building blocks being laid today. Through streaming platforms like Netflix and others, you have a distribution platform to make that possible" Sarandos added.
In recent years, India has emerged as an increasingly important market for Netflix's future growth, amid a rising appetite for digital content among consumers in the world’s second-largest internet market.
In July 2024, the streaming platform said India was the second-largest market in terms of paid subscriber additions and the third largest in terms of revenue growth percentage for the second quarter of 2024, without disclosing the numbers.
Sarandos had previously said that India is a "big prize" because it has an enormous population of entertainment-loving people. While Netflix doesn't provide country-wise breakup of its paid member base, the service has around 15 million subscribers in the country, according to industry estimates.
In February, Netflix announced its 2025 content slate which features 25 titles, including new releases and returning seasons of popular television series. The lineup includes six movies, 14 series, and five unscripted titles spanning genres such as drama, romantic comedies, action, and thrillers, among others.
In India, Netflix competes with JioHotstar, Amazon Prime Video, ZEE5, Sony LIV, and Apple TV+.
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