Netflix has had a good year so far. Or at least, the content released during the second half of 2021 has been brilliant from Netflix, especially for the Indian subscribers. Shows like ‘Squid Game‘, ‘Money Heist‘ Season 5 and ‘Arcane’ have topped Netflix India’s most-watched top 10 web series chart and stayed on it for multiple weeks, while films like ‘Red Notice’, ‘Kingdom: Ashin of The North’ and ‘The Summit of The Gods’ have been warmly received by Indian Netflix users. But Netflix has yet to drop a certified Indian original hit on the OTT platform. Will this “drought” of Indian original hits continue into 2022?
By the way, Netflix hasn’t done as bad a job as it is implied above. The Kriti Sanon starrer, ‘Mimi‘, can be called a hit – it did well with Indian viewers. It hasn’t wowed critics, but many Indian subscribers have loved the film so far. ‘Dhamaka‘ was an okay feature film as well. ‘Pagglait’ is a unique film about a woman who became a widow at a young age, and is another satisfactory movie. But compared to Amazon Prime Video’s ‘Drishyam 2’, ‘Jai Bhim‘, ‘Sherni’, ‘Sarapatta Parambarai’, ‘Malik’, ‘Narappa’ and many others, these aforementioned Netflix Indian originals are not even worth mentioning. Disney+ Hotstar is not doing as well as Amazon Prime Video but their “Hotstar Specials” have been dropping some quality content recently and are miles ahead of Netflix (in creating quality Indian content).
And this is surprising. Netflix had a string of supposed must-watches releasing earlier in the year – ‘Irul’, ‘Meenakshi Sundareshwar’ and of course, Dhanush’s ‘Jagame Thandiram’. And all three failed miserably on the streaming platform. If these are the films that Netflix is going to continue investing in, there is a good chance that 2022 will also be a “dud year” for releasing Indian originals.
However, we still have a chance at the moment. There are two highly anticipated Netflix originals making their way to the OTT platform before the year ends and hopefully, their response will dictate the kind of films the streaming platform will start to invest in from 2022 onwards. They are:
Decoupled, a Netflix web series that will premiere on 17th December 2021.
Minnal Murali, a feature film that will premiere on Netflix on Christmas Eve, 24th December 2021.
So, for now, we have to wait and see. But according to all of the other releases, the odds aren’t in Netflix’s favour.
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