Netflix expands its India content slate with eight new original titles

Netflix has expanded its India slate of original content with eight new titles including six original films and two original series across various genres like thrillers, romantic comedies, and lighthearted dramas.

With this, Netflix now has commissioned overall about 50-60 productions in the country, its largest investment in original programming outside the United States. Of this, around 19 films and 14 original series have been released on the platform as of now.

Among the new film additions, many of which were originally slated for a theatrical release, include comedy-drama Ludo (starring Abhishek A. Bachchan & Rajkummar Rao), crime thriller Raat Akeli Hai (starring Radhika Apte, Nawazuddin Siddiqui), romantic comedy Ginny Weds Sunny (featuring Yami Gautam, Vikrant Massey), dramas Torbaaz (starring Sanjay Dutt) and Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare (starring Konkona Sensharma and Bhumi Pednekar), and animated romance film Bombay Rose, which was premiered at Venice Critics’ Week last year.

These join the previously announced line-up of Netflix original films including Janhvi Kapoor and Pankaj Tripathi starrer Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl, Kajol’s dysfunctional family drama Tribhanga – Tedhi Medhi Crazy, Shabana Azmi’s horror story Kaali Khuhi, Nawazuddin Siddiqui-starrer witty drama Serious Men, Bobby Deol’s police drama Class Of ’83 and Anil Kapoor-Anurag Kashyap starrer dark comedy AK vs AK, all of which are expected to debut on the platform in the coming months.

“We know our members have unique tastes, moods and needs – sometimes, they want to lean back and watch a delightful comedy, and at other times, they want a pulse-pounding thriller that brings them to the edge of their seats. We are so proud to bring these diverse stories created by acclaimed and emerging storytellers and producing partners” said Monika Shergill, VP-Content, Netflix India.

Read: Netflix eyes making its service ‘more competitive’ in India

The two new original series additions are a young adult romance ‘Mismatched’, based on Sandhya Menon’s book ‘When Dimple Met Rishi’ and A Suitable Boy, based on Vikram Seth’s popular eponymous book, which will be available across the world except for the United States and Canada.

Other previously announced original series that are expected to debut in the coming months include Masaba Masaba, a scripted series based on real-life moments of the prominent fashion designer Masaba Gupta’s life, a contemporary drama Bombay Begums and a drama-comedy Bhaag Beanie Bhaag.

This announcement comes at a time when video streaming services are ramping up their programming to cater to a surge in content consumption and subscription growth as people are confined to their homes due to the pandemic-induced lockdown.

Last month, Disney-owned video streaming service Disney+ Hotstar announced they will be premiering seven Hindi movies that were originally slated for a theatrical release while Amazon Prime Video had picked up seven Bollywood and regional films including Amitabh Bachchan-Ayushmann Khurrana’s ‘Gulabo Sitabo’ and Vidya Balan-starrer ‘Shakuntala Devi’ last month for a direct-to-digital premiere. Other players like ZEE5 and Times Internet*-owned MX Player have also increased programming on their respective platforms.

In December, the Los Gatos, California-based streaming giant had announced plans to spend Rs 3,000 crore on content programming in India in 2019 and 2020.

“We’ve seen big growth in viewing in India and have had great success on our local originals there, that have really been driving a lot of engagement in local content on our India service,” Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos had said in the company’s earnings call in April this year.

“We’re growing the business across the board in terms of content and content taste including licensed, original, international, and domestic content. La Casa de Papel was a huge hit in India for us as well as most of our other originals out of the U.S.” he added.

Netflix had added 3.6 million paid members in the Asia Pacific region in the quarter ended March 2020 that saw a record global additions of 15.8 million paid subscribers, taking its total base to 182.9 million subscribers.

The company also recently introduced the ability for users to remove a film or series from the ‘Continue Watching’ row on their mobile devices.

“We constantly look to make the Netflix experience more intuitive. The update to the mobile menu groups a few existing options — downloading a show or movie, rating it, or removing it from Continue Watching — and makes them more convenient.” a company spokesperson said.

*Disclosure: Times Internet owns ETtech