Mumbai: Netflix is celebrating its 10th anniversary in the country. At FICCI Frames in a Fireside Chat Netflix India VP Content Monika Shergill was asked about the creative risk she greenlit that surprised her. She said, “I think everything that you do in the entertainment space is fundamentally a risk because no one knows what’s going to be successful. You can make a best case judgment depending on the genre.”
She noted that it is about the clarity of the story, the vision, and voice of the filmmaker. “Creative risks are what we take every single day, multiple times a day.” She pointed out to ‘Chamkila’ which she noted was such a unique screenplay. “Many people are familiar with the story of ‘Chamkila’ and it was made before.” What appealed to her was the way it was being approached was very risky, it was very uncomfortable but exciting for Netflix.
The decision was taken to lean into that risk. “It was a very experimental film and it came together as a journey beautifully. We knew it was a very powerful film but we didn’t know it would become so cult and when it got the nomination for the international Emmy. That journey you can never predict.”
The second piece of content that surprised her was Kapil Sharma. “I always was passionate about bringing Kapil on to the service because great entertainment is all about being relevant to everyone and family viewing is something very important on Netflix. We want to cater to individuals and families. So people were shocked that Kapil was on Netflix or ‘Maamla Legal Hai’ but that’s the journey we are on.”
Netflix she said subtitles in around 37 languages for global consumption. 70% of consumption of stories on Netflix globally happens in subtitles and dubbed content. Gems are made everywhere and subs and dubs gives them an opportunity to track well. Stories she noted are actually becoming language agnostic and more and more people have the ability to enjoy them
She was asked about balancing prestige projects with mass emotional stories. She noted in response that there is a false hierarchy that exists that prestige shows are better and that things that entertain the masses are actually not as good. “I think that false hierarchy, that divide is not rational in a world where the medium of streaming actually allows you to reach the maximum number of audience. This medium was a push medium. People had no choice or limited choice. They would watch what they would get.
“But streaming is a medium where it’s like swimming in an ocean. You are in an ocean of content and you have to pull stories towards you. We will as a platform aid the experience, the discovery but you have choices. And when a creator or a storyteller has the option of reaching the widest possible audience why would you choose to only reach a small audience? And it doesn’t mean that prestige titles cannot be loved.”
She went on to note that when she looks at stories what’s most important is to see that if this story be both layered and deeply crafted and if it can be widely loved? “If it’s together, it’s the best form of entertainment. The greatest entertainment is when you actually as a filmmaker or a storyteller carried your message that you’re so passionate about and you’ve made more people watch it, more people experience it not less people. So of course there will be stories that will be more niche but the medium allows you to actually say everything that you are passionate about but to also reach out the widest possible audience.”
When asked about what tells her that a show has connected with viewers she noted that this is something which you can’t plan for. “It’s something that happens because after you’ve made something it’s the audience, people who love stories who embrace it in different ways but there are things that help you understand that. The first thing is engagement.
“What we look at usually is how many people start watching a story. Do they stick to it or not? How fast are they completing it? But more than just engagement it is when something leaps out of your screen and enters the conversation.” It could be about people talking about a piece of content sitting in a coffee shop. When stories start impacting our everyday conversations that she explains is when you know that a story has transcended the screen and it has actually gone into people’s everyday life.
She offered the example of the reels, memes and all of what’s happening to ‘Ba***ds of Bollywood’ right now. She noted that it is breaking the internet, people are finding hidden agendas, stories and moments. ‘Heeramandi’ she noted impacted fashion, music. She noted that ‘Amar Singh Chamkila’ had 19 songs. “There was a belief that songs don’t work because streaming is a very lean in experience but when you put something in the right way with the story and it’s woven into the fabric of the story that is when you will experience the story. You will not even know when a song starts, when it ends.”
The Netflix Effect: She spoke about the Netflix effect noting that tourism in Paris went up because of the show ‘Emily in Paris’. ‘Bridgerton’ started passion around period dramas and romance in period stories. “So all of these stories go from screen to your life and that’s how, you know cultural resonance happens. When you have authenticity and you marry it with scale that is when you actually become culture defining. For us in Netflix we’ve had a lot of stories in India (which have actually now completely become culture defining.”
She said that she is very excited about Kurukshetra also coming because that is Mahabharata retold with Gulzar’s poetic rendition and the phenomenal scale at which that animation happens and it’s going to take you through 18 chapters 18 days of the Mahabharata war very fascinatingly told
She spoke about the importance of passion. “I often say in my office that I cartwheel to work and I tell my team that if you’re not cartwheeling to work then maybe you should be doing something else.”
The Future: Asked about what lies ahead in the next decade she noted that there’s a lot of churn happening, there’s lots of opportunity and lots of fear also about technology coming. “But one thing we know for sure that in a world that’s so divided and uncertain all he time, this is not just a problem of this decade. Every decade, every time has been about that, there are different things that challenge us. I do know that where everything else may be dividing us stories are something that will continue to unite us and Netflix is in the business of storytelling.”
She noted that as we go year on year it’s a great future for the media and entertainment sector. “Streaming is set to really become much more accessible and more of a habit than it already is and stories are not going away anywhere. Stories are here to unite us and to really bring the joy and escape and comfort that we seek every day, so I have a great belief in that and that’s what we are here to do.”
