Veteran filmmaker Anurag Kashyap has hit out at Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos following the latter’s recent comments regarding the streaming platform’s launch strategy in India, specifically its decision to lead with Kashyap’s critically acclaimed series Sacred Games.
Anurag Kashyap REACTS strongly to Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos’ Sacred Games remarks: “Tech guys are dumb when it comes to storytelling”
In a recent appearance on Nikhil Kamath’s podcast, Sarandos reflected on Netflix’s early India strategy and hinted that Sacred Games might not have been the most commercially viable choice. “For me, if I did it all over again, would I have done Sacred Games a couple of years later, and did things that were more populist instead? Maybe,” Sarandos said, suggesting that the streamer might have gained faster traction with mass-appeal content.
The remark didn’t sit well with Kashyap, who co-directed Sacred Games — India’s first Netflix original series — alongside Vikramaditya Motwane. The gritty crime thriller, starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Saif Ali Khan, was widely hailed as a game-changer for Indian OTT content when it premiered in 2018.
Kashyap responded by posting a screenshot of a report summarizing Sarandos’ comments on Instagram, along with a scathing caption: “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 storytelling but @tedsarandos is the definition of dumb is what I didn’t know. Good to discover that. This explains everything now.”
The “Saas Bahu” reference appears to be a swipe at Netflix India’s newly announced collaboration with Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Telefilms, known for its long-running soap operas like Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi — a genre that dominated Indian television in the 2000s.
While Sarandos had clarified that India was always going to be a “slower journey” for Netflix due to its complex media landscape, his remark has reignited the ongoing debate about creative risks vs. commercial viability in India’s streaming ecosystem.
Actor Lisa Mishra, who recently appeared in Netflix India’s The Royals, chimed in on Kashyap’s post, writing: “Everything in OTT is derivative now anyways, and specifically derivative of Sacred Games.
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