Anurag Kashyap calls Netflix CEO ‘dumb’ over Sacred Games comment: ‘He should have started with Saas Bahu…’

Anurag Kashyap wrote in the caption, “He should have started with Saas Bahu… he would have done well. Which he is doing now. I always knew the tech guys are dumb when it comes to storytelling but @tedsarandos is the definition of dumb is what I didn’t know. Good to discover that. This explains everything now.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap10)

By “Saas Bahu,” Anyrag Kashyap was referring to the recently announced partnership between Netflix India and Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Telefilms. Ekta revolutionized the TV industry in the early 2000s when she brought popular daily soaps like Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi to Indian television.

Interestingly, actor Lisa Mishra, who recently appeared in The Royals on Netflix India, also commented on Kashyap’s post. “Everything in OTT is derivative now anyways, and specifically derivative of Sacred Games,” she wrote. The Royals, which didn’t get favourable reviews, has been renewed for season 2.

“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,” Ted Sarandos said recently on Nikhil Kamath’s podcast.

Back in March, Anurag Kashyap had heaped praise on the British psychological crime drama Adolescence on Netflix, and claimed such a show would never be commissioned in India in its truest form. “Now coming to my envy and jealousy. Ted Sarandos (recently put a post where he says – ‘Every once and a while one comes along that pushes into brand new territories, defies the limits of creativity and features career defining performances.’ “And I hope he means it. Because his on(sic) Netflix.in is a totally opposite s**tshow,” he wrote on Instagram.

Also Read — Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos unsure if launching in India with Sacred Games was ideal, says something ‘more populist’ might have worked better: ‘If I did it all over again…’

“If they were pitched this, most probably they would have rejected it or turned it into a 90 minute film (that too seems like an impossibility because it doesn’t have an ending that is black and white),” Kashyap added.

“Having gone through twice with them post Sacred Games and dealing with total lack of empathy, courage and dumbness mixed with immense insecurity of the series head and the team that keeps getting fired. It frustrates me. How do we ever create something so powerful and honest with a bunch of most dishonest and morally corrupt @netflix.in backed so strongly by the boss in LA,” wrote the filmmaker.