The Netflix effect: Ten years of streaming spotlight India's storytelling

From House of Cards to Indian stories going global, Netflix's decade in India marks how streaming reshaped entertainment, redrew media power, and changed what the world watches

Beau Willimon’s House of Cards (Netflix, 2013) begins with an angry Kevin Spacey. He plays Congressman Frank Underwood who has just been thwarted for the position of secretary of state by the newly elected president. Underwood and his wife Claire, played superbly by Robin Wright, are ruthless in their pursuit of power. Manipulation, lies, betrayal and killing are the means through which he rises to be vice-president and then president. House of Cards (6 seasons) made for a fascinating watch, winning several Emmys and Golden Globes along the way. It was the first original Netflix dropped. It is also the best way to describe the effect Netflix has had on the world of media and entertainment. The first ever pay-streaming service has been the catalyst that sent the entire global media order collapsing, like a house of cards. 

This week Netflix completes 10 years in India. It is a great time then to revisit the collapse and subsequent redrawing of the media map — globally and in India. 

Netflix was renting out DVDs in the 1990s. It began streaming in 2010, five years after YouTube. However, commissioning the House of Cards changed things. The first two seasons of 26 episodes cost $100 million — the budget for a full-length film — to produce. All the episodes in a season were released together, and the service was priced at $8 to $12 a month, compared to $50 or more for cable TV. It was, by far, the biggest disruption in entertainment since compression technologies like MP3 devastated the music business in the late ’90s. 

Netflix showcased the possibilities of on-demand, pay-driven streaming that could replace linear television, theatrical releases, news channels all at the same time. And it realised that potential too. At $39 billion in revenues and over 300 million subscribers, it is the largest pay-streaming service in the world. 

These were audiences others were hankering after too. Whether it was to sell more products (Amazon) or to get people to search more (Google), many of the big tech-majors needed huge audiences across geographies, technologies and devices. Most of them, such as Amazon and Apple, along with the legacy media firms like Fox, Disney, Warner, had been taking stabs at video streaming. But after Netflix, streaming became serious with Amazon Prime Video, Apple, and a whole host of others upping their game. Soon, it became evident that the players with the biggest pockets and platforms would have the best negotiating power. 

The tech-media majors are anywhere from $160 to $600 billion in top line. The biggest legacy studios would be between $30 billion and $80 billion. That is why, in 2017, Rupert Murdoch chose to sell Twenty-First Century Fox’s entertainment assets, including Star India to The Walt Disney Company. Around the same time, Zee went through a promoter-triggered debt crisis and decided to sell out. The Sony-Zee merger did not happen but others, such as PVR-Inox and JioStar (Star India plus Viacom18) did. Just as the global map was redrawn, the Indian one was as well. That consolidation continues — globally and in India. 

That is the business story. Watch a bit of Netflix to understand the consumer end. 

Baltasar Kormákur’s Trapped on Netflix begins with the discovery of a torso in a small town north of Reykjavik, Iceland. As the bodies pile up and a snow storm cuts off the town, it falls to the bulky, gentle police chief, Andri Ólafsson, and his deputies, Hinrika and Ásgeir, to figure things out. The biting cold winds, snowfall, an avalanche, a shipload of stranded passengers, a blackout, everything adds to the feeling of being trapped. As this Icelandic drama sucks you into its world, you learn to read a look and long silences and not shirk from a relentlessly honest camera. Twenty episodes and two seasons later, I was hooked to “Nordic noir” as the critics call it. 

Ten years ago, what was the possibility of finding an Icelandic show, enjoying it and looking for more? The rich haul of stories that streaming video or OTT offers from around the world is extraordinary and Netflix introduced us to these. Others followed. 

Just as you and I are discovering Columbian, Spanish, German, Turkish or Korean shows and films, millions of people across the world are discovering Indian ones like Kohrra, Paatal Lok, Mirzapur, Family Man, or Delhi Crime. These are local stories, told by Indian storytellers in Indian languages. Putting them on streaming is taking them global in a way we couldn’t have imagined. Every Indian show released on Netflix or Amazon Prime Video is available in 200 countries. Many of them are reviewed in some of the leading newspapers, magazines and TV stations across the world. Some of the biggest Indian releases overseas — Fox Studios’ My Name is Khan (2010) or Disney’s Dangal (2016) — did not get that. 

After decades of talking about the “crossover film,” Indian stories are finally crossing over. They are routinely nominated for International Emmys. In 2020, Delhi Crime and in 2023 Vir Das’s Landing, won. Both were on Netflix. The world’s largest film-producing industry is now showcasing its storytelling chops to the world. That is one of the best things that 10 years of Netflix (and streaming) have brought to India. 

X: @vanitakohlik