Netflix, being the marvelous and massive medium that it is, has been eyeing two very popular and loved platforms: Bollywood and anime. This is certainly good news, with the one major downside being that nothing is “certain” as of yet. Reed Hastings, the CEO of Netflix, spoke with New York Times journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin, and admitted he doesn’t think enough quality television exists, so his company is “constantly thinking about how to produce unique programming not being served by traditional production companies.”
Hastings cited Bollywood-esque shows and animes as two primary genres Netflix is thinking about producing; Hastings also made it clear that these shows, if and when they’re developed, will be catered towards foreign audiences.
Here’s Hastings’ full statement in regards to Netflix programming along with his thoughts on Netflix Bollywood and anime series:
“When I look at our shows, we just had one come out this summer, Narcos, and it’s a very different kind of show. It’s an American company, Netflix, contracts with the oldest movie company in the world — a french company Gaumont — to make a production in Bogota, Columbia, featuring Brazilian actors and directed by a Brazilian — three quarters Spanish, one quarter English — and it’s hugely popular in Germany.
You go beyond the normal spectrum to get quality and you really stretch to the things that you can do. On-demand and the internet really gives you that power. when you have incredible distribution, then you have to open the front end of the funnel to have incredible producers around the world.
We’re hopeful that we’ll over time make a great Bollywood show, make a great anime show. It might not be that that Bollywood show is for [Showtime CEO] Matt Blank. It might be that it’s more segmented, but again the internet let’s you do that. I think that’s the key in that enablement. But as Matt knows, making these shows is very challenging and I’m sure we’ll have issues over time.”
So although nothing is certain, a statement of interest has been made which, to me, is better than nothing. This could make Netflix even bigger than it already is!
What are your thoughts on Netflix making original animes and Bollywood series? Let us know in the comments down below!
Author
