Indian filmmaker Anurag Kashyap has launched a attack on Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, calling him “the definition of dumb” and criticizing the streaming giant’s early India strategy around shows like “Sacred Games.”
Bowing in 2018, the neo-noir “Sacred Games,” directed by Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane, is Netflix’s first Indian original series.
Sarandos appeared on Nikhil Kamath’s “People by WTF” podcast during his recent visit to India. During the conversation, Sarandos reflected on Netflix’s early India strategy, particularly around the launch of “Sacred Games.” “I thought this is going to be great. People in India love movies. This is a TV show that feels as big as a movie. Has movie stars.” he said. “What was interesting about it is, like, it was very, very novel, but I didn’t realize that we were going to be, like, introducing a brand new kind of entertainment to a country the size of India, because there was nothing else like it.”
Sarandos suggested that if he “did it all over again,” he might have “done ‘Sacred Games’ a couple of years later and did some things that were a little more popular to programming. Maybe. But we knew that India was going to be a slower journey to get to where we want to get to, but that it’s a great prize at the end of the day.”
In response, Kashyap posted on social media: “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 story telling but @tedsarandos is the definition of dumb is what I didn’t know. Good to discover that. This explains everything now.”
Kashyap’s reference here is to mother-in-law, daughter-in-law soap “Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi,” which aired 1,833 episodes between 2000-2008 on Star Plus and was one of several in the genre produced by Indian content queen Ekta Kapoor. On Saturday, Kapoor’s company Balaji Telefilms unveiled a new creative partnership with Netflix.
Variety has reached out to Netflix for comment.