Actor Saif Ali Khan and Netflix CEO, Ted Saraonds, last a conversation in The Waves 2025, in Mumbai, Saturday, May 3, 2025 | Photo credit: Shasank Parade
Indian film actor Ali Khan made his debut at Ott in the ‘Sacred Games’ of the Netflix series in 2018, at a time when the transmission platform was finding his feet in India. Since then, Khan’s association with Netflix has grown up and after the political drama
Netflix’s executive co -chair, Ted Saraonds, feels that the transmission platforms have democratized cinema. He said that Netflix after Covid has invested $ 2 billion in India.
At the World Summit of Visual & Entertainment, Saraonds and Khan Tok to the stage to talk about the dynamic change in the creation and consumption of content.
Chat edited experiences:
Ted Sarandos: We have bones operating in India now for nine years, but you know we did our great swing seven years ago ‘Sacred Games’. And you carried that swing with us, so we will always be grateful. He knew that when we arrived in India, it would be a very important part of Ourney, because we meet the ‘sacred games’ is that great stories could transcend borders, language, culture and really talk to the world. I am so excited to work with you and work with the creative community in India all the time.
Saif Ali Khan: Thank you, that’s a child of you. ‘Sacred Games’ is one of the most special things I have done in the movie and it will always be very, very close to my heart. Netflix has completely transformed the way we experience stories. I still remember a moment when seeing a movie was the son of fighting for a film ticket, managing to be somehow, standing in the queues. There were single screen theaters. That was the only way out at that time. Today, with just one touch, people have unlimited options. In tablets, phones, mass screens and a plywood around the corner. You have been in the heart of this revolution. Could you tell me two things? Number one, what is looking at the world at this time? And even the most important thing, where do you see the narration of stories in the next 20 years?
Saraonds: Well, the great thing is that the world is watching its favorite program and film in Netflix worldwide, and it is rarely the same. From time to time, something will really get caught where people not only because to see it all over the world, but want to talk about it. Something like adolescence at this time from the United Kingdom is an example of that, where you take advantage of a story that feels very, very local and very, very relevant almost anywhere where it is in the world. We have the pleasure of doing that with stories that could be very British, such as adolescence or hearamandi, which would be an obvious bleach and still travel throughout the world. And I think that has a son of the new dynamic.
20 years is a long time to predict. I would be able to predict bone to predict, just where we sat today for seven years, when we started here. But I think the impact of the transmission is really about meeting the audience where they are. And if you are in the business of bringing entertainment to people, cinema or television, or if you are in the business of creating that, I think your first thought should be, how does this audience please? How do I take them where they are?
I think that the other things that are very difficult to predict, but incredible, is our production in local narration. That is, again, he started with the ‘Sacred game’ seven years ago. But from 2021 to 2024, so after Covid, when things returned to normal, we have invested in India in a way that has created an economic impact of $ 2 billion of our productions. Then, 20,000 distribution and crew works of our productions in India, and we think that what people are seeing worldwide, last year, about 3 billion hours or Indian content in Netflix worldwide. Then, about 60 million hours a week. Last year, every week of last year, there was a title of India at the world top.
In those productions, we have made 150 original films and series and we have filmed in 90 different cities in India.
Do you care if I ask you a question? So, when you did a great swing with us, we had not demonstrated our launch at all in India. We were very exotic, I think, when we got here first. As an actor, how has his world changed with film broadcast and television from the sacred games?
Khan: It has been the most liberating and most surprising for all actors around the world. Previously, we fit into specific boxes. There was a formula, a look, a style for the child of the things he had to do. Today, thanks to the transmission, we can explore characters in a very different way and have much more depth. For artists, transmission is like this massive creative patio without limits. It is a creative revolution. Transmission has been a real disruptive. The rhythm, access, scope is amazing. Is there any way to measure how big this impact worldwide and so special in India has?
Saraonds: India has a great film culture. People love to go to movies, they like to watch movies on television, he likes to talk about cinema. What the transmission has done is get to the audience where they were. If you want to watch a movie, I want to give you. And sometimes it is not a pact, sometimes it is not affordable. Sometimes there is no way to see it. What the transmission has done, I think, is with the audience where they were, focused on entertaining. I am more concerned with people keep watching movies and that this is a business model that people can continue making films.
Then, in the United States, the average person sees two films a year at the cinema … two films throughout the year. And watch seven films a month in Netflix. So this is a business model and a distribution system that will enable films forever.
Khan: What is your message for Indian creators who point to their content worldwide?
Saraonds: I think the most interesting thing is that, if you try to design something to be global, you are doing it for anyone. The things that have proven to be the most global, the things that have traveled, which have seen more out of origin, have been the things that have been the most authentic locally. Then, nothing will work outside India, if not loved in India.
So do not try to water it or try to amalgamate this, reverse engineering of how a film is supposed to be for the world. Because I don’t think people just think they would simply recognize that world you have created. So, what they will recognize is that India, which is local, is local for them.
Posted on May 3, 2025
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