Netflix Global CEO meets I&B Minister Anurag Singh Thakur

Netflix Global CEO Ted Sarandos and Information & Broadcasting Minister Anurag Singh Thakur.

Netflix Global chief executive officer (CEO) Ted Sarandos met Information & Broadcasting Minister Anurag Singh Thakur on Friday.

According to a government statement, during the meeting, Mr. Thakur highlighted the expanding creative economy and how India, backed by domestic talents, had emerged as a content and post production hub. They also discussed “how India’s regional content was a global favourite today and among the most viewed content globally apart from being dubbed in dozens of languages”.

Mr. Sarandos is one of the founding members of Netflix, which has presence in 190 countries and more than 223 million subscribers. The Netflix service was launched in India in 2016.

Through an initiative called “Azadi Ki Amrit Kahaniyan”, Netflix has committed to produce 25 short and inspirational videos for the Information & Broadcasting Ministry.

“These videos are used by government agencies across the country on their social media, broadcast on the Doordarshan network, and distributed to public and private schools across the country,” said the Ministry.

The first set of videos were on “Women Changemakers” and the second set on the freedom fighters of the First War of Independence (1857).

“Netflix has been deeply committed to the local creative community and has conducted several skill development workshops and competitions including scriptwriting programme for 100 women scriptwriters in partnership with the NFDC (National Film Development Corporation), and animation master classes at the International Film Festival of India in collaboration with Gobelins L’Ecole,” said the note.

It said: “Netflix also brought a lot of regional content on the world map with our eagerly awaited southern slate with Godfather (Telugu), Don (Tamil), Major (Telugu) and The Ghost (Telugu), in addition to Beast (Tamil).”