Renowned filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, known for his candid opinions on the commercial focus of OTT platforms recently took to social media to criticise Netflix’s leadership. In a heartfelt post, he praised the British drama ‘Adolescence’ for its bold storytelling and critical acclaim expressing envy over the creative freedom afforded to its makers – something he believes Indian filmmakers are denied on Netflix. Kashyap didn’t hold back in the comments section where he elaborated on his frustrations with the platform’s alleged hypocrisy and lack of moral integrity. In a rather long post, he wrote:
“Now coming to my envy and jealousy. Ted Sarandos (Netflix head) recently put a post where he says – ‘Every once in a while one comes along that pushes into brand new territories, defies the limits of creativity and features career-defining performances.’ And I hope he means it. Because on netflix is a totally opposite sh*t show. If they were pitched this, most probably they would have rejected it or turned it into a 90-minute film (that too seems like an impossibility because it doesn’t have an ending that is black and white).
Having gone through twice with them post ‘Sacred Games’ and dealing with total lack of empathy, courage and dumbness, mixed with immense insecurity of the series head and the team that keeps getting fired. It frustrates me. How do we ever create something so powerful and honest with a bunch of most dishonest and morally corrupt netflix backed so strongly by the boss in LA?
This hypocrisy of Ted and Bela (Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria) visa a vis the Indian market of 1.4 billion people, where their only interest is an increase in subscriptions and nothing else. There was a time when Erik Barmack would reach out on Facebook to create something with Netflix to now where they send you a sh*t show like ‘Saare Jahan Se Achcha’ – which wasn’t even written properly and half-baked. Which, by the way, has already changed directors and been shot twice (inevitably). It makes me frustrated and jealous of shows like ‘Adolescence’ and envious and hopeless.
I hope they learn from the reception of it and realise that all the best things Indian Netflix does is mostly either acquired (‘Delhi Crime’, ‘Black Warrant’) or the ones they least believed in (‘Kohrra’, ‘Trial By Fire’). Fingers crossed for a better future.”
Having relocated to the South in pursuit of fresh inspiration, Anurag Kashyap voiced his hopes for a more promising future urging the OTT giant to acknowledge the realities of the Indian creative landscape.
