Netflix Originals: Cultural Challenges Producing Local Content

What are some of the biggest challenges you faced at Netflix?

I would say that the more different the market is, then you can get caught if you’re not very sensitive, locally. We had a show in India, Sacred Games, which is great and it did really well for us, but there’s this scene where this gangster, early on in his life, puts a chicken bone in the rice of a vegetarian restaurant, as a way of telling the restaurant owner that he was done with his job. When we were premiering that show in Mumbai, I remember the audience gasped. It was, literally, a scene that I’d watched over and over again and thought it was kind of funny. As an outsider, you don’t appreciate the nuance of it all. Luckily, the show did really well for us. But you can just misunderstand what is either culturally relevant or culturally offensive.

You’re making decisions, with producers, that are, essentially, extensions of who you are, as an executive. You can definitely bet on the wrong people, who can end up either spending money poorly, or taking money out of the show. There is a constant bit of work that you have to do, regarding who do you trust and all of that.