MUMBAI: Netflix is upping its India game significantly as the streaming giant is ready to spend Rs 3000 crore on Indian content for this year and the next. Netflix founder and CEO Reed Hastings spoke about the investment during his India visit on Friday while illustrating the country’s important in their business.
"We launched in 2016 and we have continued to invest. So we have a lot of content from the United States, the UK and Spain. We are developing our Indian content here,” Hastings said at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, according to media reports. "This year and next year, we will spend about Rs 3,000 crore developing content and you will start to see a lot of stuff hit the screens," he added.
He also added that top performing Netflix shows from India include Sacred Games, Little Things and Delhi Crime. Talking about content made in India and watched by the world, Reed highlighted Mighty Little Bheem, which since its release in 2019, has been watched by 27 million households around the world, including Latin America, Australia and New Zealand.
Since launching here four years ago, Netflix has licensed hundreds of Indian films and shows, and invested in over 40 Netflix originals - almost all of which have been commissioned by Indian executives who live locally, know the culture and speak the language. These originals have been shot in over 20 cities across the country, including Delhi, Jaipur, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Kolkata, and Kochi.
"The next 5-10 years will be the golden age of television. You are seeing unbelievable and unrivalled levels of investment. Partially from the global companies like Apple, Amazon, Disney and Viacom. There are all investing here in India as well as in the UK and the US. We are seeing more content made than ever before. It's a great export,” he said.
"The internet has the possibility to really transform the Indian content market to be export-driven. So far, we have had some amazing successes. Sacred Games travelled around the world. We are really excited about those stories," he added.
