Anurag Kashyap Slams Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos Over Sacred Games Remark

Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos recently appeared on Nikhil Kamath’s WTF podcast, discussing Netflix India’s content journey. However, his remarks about Sacred Games sparked sharp criticism from the show’s co-creator, Anurag Kashyap.

Sarandos reflected on Netflix’s Indian originals, admitting uncertainty about launching with Sacred Games. He suggested Netflix might have opted for something more “populist” initially to better connect with the Indian audience.

Reacting on Threads, Kashyap did not hold back. Sharing a news screengrab of Sarandos’ comments, he wrote, “He should have started with Saas Bahu .. he would have done well. Which he is doing now Z I always knew the tech guys are dumb when it comes to story telling but @tedsarandos is the definition of dumb is what I didn’t know . Good to discover that. This explains everything now.”

On the podcast, Sarandos explained Netflix’s early challenges, “Our very first Indian original show was Sacred Games. And I thought, ‘This is going to be great. People in India love movies. This is a TV show that feels as big as a movie, it has movie stars.’ What’s interesting about it is that it was very, very novel, but what I didn’t understand that we were introducing a brand new kind of entertainment in a country the size of India.” 

He added, “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. But we knew that India was going to be a slower journey to get to where we wanted to get to. But it’s a great prize, at the end of the day. The addressable market is growing in the next couple of years in India, so it’s exciting.”

Sacred Games marked Netflix’s first original Indian series, directed by Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane. Starring Saif Ali Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, it was widely praised when it premiered in 2018. Although the second season received mixed reviews and the show was eventually cancelled.