Netflix to offer an affordable Rs 250 a month, mobile-only plan in India

Netflix currently offers three monthly plans in India, priced between Rs 500 and Rs 800.

Netflix Inc said on Wednesday it would roll out a lower-priced mobile-only plan in India, tapping into a price-sensitive market where data consumption on smartphones is surging.

The video streaming pioneer said in March that it was testing a Rs 250 ($3.63) monthly subscription for mobile devices in India, where data plans are among the cheapest in the world.

"We believe this plan ... will be an effective way to introduce a larger number of people in India to Netflix and to further expand our business in a market where Pay TV ARPU is low," the company said.

Netflix's new plan is aimed at battling cheaper offerings from rivals such as Amazon.com Inc's Prime Video and Hotstar, a video streaming platform owned by Walt Disney Co's India unit.

Netflix currently offers three monthly plans in India, priced between Rs 500 and Rs 800.

ALSO READ: Should Netflix be afraid of Apple?

In contrast, Hotstar, which also offers content from AT&T Inc's HBO and streams live sports, charges Rs 299 per month. Amazon bundles its video and music streaming services with its Prime membership.

Netflix's announcement was part of its quarterly results, in which it reported lower-than-expected subscriber additions.

India figures prominently in Netflix Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings' global expansion plans. The company is investing heavily in creating blockbuster shows such as crime thriller "Sacred Games" and "Delhi Crime" with A-list Bollywood actors.

The second season of "Sacred Games" is set to release in August.

"We've been seeing nice steady increases in engagement with our Indian viewers that we think we can keep building on. Growth in that country is a marathon, so we're in it for the long haul," Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos said.

Sacred Games season 2 first look out: Kalki, Ranvir Shorey join the race

Saif Ali Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Pankaj Tripathi will continue to play the characters of Sartaj Singh, Ganesh Gaitonde and Guruji in the second season of Sacred Games.

Netflix has released the first look of the season 2 of Sacred Games, which is set to return with a new trail of betrayal, crime, passion and a thrilling chase through Mumbai's underbelly, later this year.
The 26 second video released on YouTube Sunday shows all the characters who will play the pivotal roles in the next season. Apart from Saif Ali Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Pankaj Tripathi, who will continue to play the characters of Sartaj Singh, Ganesh Gaitonde and Guruji, the teaser also introduces Kalki Koechlin and Ranvir Shorey. According to Netflix, fans will witness Koechlin as Batya and Shorey as Shahid Khan in the show.'

The second season picks up from Sartaj Singh (actor Saif Ali Khan) pursuing his relentless battle of saving the city and Ganesh Gaitonde (actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui) facing bigger challenges to retain his position as the legendary kingpin of Mumbai.

The intriguing Guruji (actor Pankaj Tripathi), introduced in season one as Gaitonde's 'third father', plays a pivotal role in unfolding a chain of events that shape the next season.

Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap will continue directing Ganesh Gaitonde's track, while director Neeraj Ghaywan will take over Sartaj Singh's plot.

Vikramaditya Motwane and Varun Grover will continue their roles of being the showrunner and the lead writer respectively.

The first season also starred Radhika Apte and Kubbra Sait.

Last December, "Mirzapur" actress Harshita Gaur had confirmed that she had bagged a pivotal role in "Sacred Games" season two.

Actor Jatin Sarna, who made a big impact with a small role as Nawazuddin's volatile hitman Bunty in "Sacred Games", will also be back in Season 2 of the Netflix series, although his character was killed in the first season.

"The second season goes into a flashback. My character Bunty is on a wheelchair. So I need to harness and control my natural energy level to play a subdued physically limited character," Jatin said.

Business Standard

Ambani vs Bezos vs Murdoch: Sacred games play out in India's content arena

Indians are watching digital video content for an average of 8 hours and 28 minutes each week, which is more than for TV.

Meghal Karekar is hooked on watching smartphone videos, an addiction shared with 200 million fellow Indians that has the world’s streaming giants beating a path to his door.

“Everywhere I go during my work day - the security guards at client offices, the receptionists, people lining up for the elevator - are on heads-down, earphones-on mode,” said Karekar, a 56-year-old architect from Bangalore. “India has always been movie-mad but the mobile phone is taking the screen mania to another level.”

As smartphone adoption surges, along with the networks capable of transmitting high-quality videos, the nascent Indian market is seeing explosive growth that is attracting everyone from Netflix Inc. to Jeff Bezos and Rupert Murdoch. They are creating original programming, developing native language content and fine-tuning their pricing strategies in the country of 1.3 billion people to get consumers to pay.

While the Indian market for over-the-top video services was worth just Rs 21.5 billion ($296 million) in the year ended March, it’s expected to grow 45 per cent annually through 2023, according to KPMG. By comparison, Netflix’s streaming business is expected to generate $7.6 billion of sales this year.

Right now it’s Hotstar, part of Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox Inc., that has the lead, helped by the rights to key cricket broadcasts. But Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime Video and Netflix are investing to win over users.

“Prime Video is to India what same-day or next day shipping is to the U.S.,” Amit Agarwal, Amazon’s India chief, said in an interview. “It’s a unique market with 700 million phone users.”

Bezos’s e-commerce giant has 30 original shows in different stages of production and many will be released next year. “Our production pipeline is bigger than anyone else,” Agarwal said.

It’s not just the sheer number of people that is appealing to streaming companies, it’s their engagement with their phones. Indians are watching digital video content for an average 8 hours and 28 minutes each week, which is more than for TV, with that number jumping 58 percent from 2016, says a study by delivery platform, Limelight Networks.

As the global giants duke it out in India, another potential entrant looms large in the form of Asia’s richest man. Billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio, with almost 240 million wireless phone users as of August, is acquiring rights to everything from soap operas and Bollywood films to the Winter Olympics for subscribers to its mobile phone network, on its way to becoming India’s largest.

For Netflix, which is in nearly half of all American households, India could hold the key to international expansion through the next 100 million new subscribers. Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings acknowledges that India is a tough market and those new users won’t come easy... Read More

Business Standard

#MeToo: Varun Grover calls harassment accusation 'traumatic', seeks closure

Grover said there has been no inquiry into his case despite his willingness.

Business Standard : Writer-lyricist Varun Grover has penned an open letter in response to an anonymous allegation of sexual harassment against him on Twitter, saying there is an "earnest need" from his side to prove his innocence as he wants closure.

Grover, who has been a vocal supporter of #MeToo movement, said the allegation against him has not only affected his mental health and professional life but also his ability to take a social stand.

"Revolutions are beautiful. They are cathartic, powerful, necessary, and like #metoo - inevitable. And revolutions, inevitably, have some collateral damage too," Grover said in a post on Medium, which he shared on Tuesday.

"...Am I angry? Yes. Is my mental health in shambles? Yes. Do I occasionally feel like a victim of an agenda? Yes. And would I still say 'Believe All Women'? Yes. But please bring in the checks to differentiate it from 'Believe All Screenshots'. Revolutions can be messy but they can't be perceived as unjust."

The "Sacred Games" writer said it had been a traumatic week for him but he is confident that he can prove the anonymous allegation against him to be false.

Grover said he understands that the movement is bigger and more important than him but his "isolated small" case affects him, his family and friends in a big way.

"It affects not just my mental health and professional life but my ability to take a social stand on every injustice I want to speak about.

"And therefore, I feel this earnest need to present my side even though no formal complaint has been filed against me. This closure is needed to maintain my own sanity," he added.

Grover said there has been no inquiry into his case despite his willingness. He said it has been hurtful to find being framed as a sexual assaulter and be bundled with other prominent names by the media.

The allegation, an anonymous screenshot, claimed that Grover sexually harassed his junior while he was in college in Varanasi. The screenshot, which was later deleted, claimed that it happened during the production of a mythological play.

The lyricist had categorically denied the allegation in a point-by-point rebuttal earlier and in his latest blog, he presented new facts to counter the claim.

He said the female strength of his juniors from batch 2000-2004 and 2001 to 2005 was a total of 36 and out of which his theatre group worked with only four women, who personally reached out to him after the news broke to express their solidarity with him.

Grover said the women further extended their support by reaching out to the rest of the 32 female students and received confirmation from each one of them that "such an incident did not happen."... Read More

God can't even save himself': Netflix announces 'Sacred Games' Season 2

Motwane and Varun Grover will continue their roles of being the showrunner and the lead writer respectively.

Netflix has officially green lit the hit series "Sacred Games" for the second season.

The thriller series, based on author Vikram Chandra's novel of the same name, features Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Saif Ali Khan in the lead.

Directed by Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane, the first season of the series premiered on Netflix on July 6.

The second season will pick up from Sartaj Singh (Khan) pursuing his relentless battle of saving the city and Ganesh Gaitonde (Siddiqui) facing bigger challenges to retain his position as the legendary kingpin of Mumbai, the streaming giant said in a press release.

Actor Pankaj Tripathi, who played the intriguing Guruji in season one will also be back for the show's sophomore run.

ALSO READ: We're first to blend Hinduism & Islam in Mandala art: Sacred Games designer

His character plays a pivotal role in unfolding a chain of events that shape the next season, which is scheduled to film in India and locations overseas later this year.

For the second season, Kashyap will continue to direct the story of Siddiqui's Gaitonde, while Motwane will be handing over the baton for the shooting of Sartaj Singh's plot to "Masaan" helmer Neeraj Ghaywan.

Motwane and Varun Grover will continue their roles of being the showrunner and the lead writer respectively.

"We've been thrilled by the response to Sacred Games from fans worldwide, and especially in India, to this high-quality production. It's incredibly exciting for us to take the story of Sacred Games forward and open a new chapter in the series with its second season," said Erik Barmack, vice president, international originals at Netflix.

"Sacred Games" is the first of eight Indian series that Netflix has commissioned. Upon its debut, the show received positive reviews from critics, mainly for the performance of its lead actor.

Article Source Business Standard

Sacred Games-Rajiv Gandhi case: Delhi HC watches show, finds nothing urgent

The plea alleges that certain scenes and dialogues in the show defame former PM Rajiv Gandhi.

The Delhi High Court on Monday sought to know whether it could hear as a PIL a plea claiming that some scenes in the Netflix series "Sacred Games" are derogatory to former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and should be removed.

A Bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Chander Shekhar asked the petitioner's advocate to first advance his submissions on the point of maintainability of the plea as a public interest litigation (PIL) and listed the matter for further hearing on July 19.

The Bench said it has gone through the CD of the series, placed on record by the petitioner, and there was nothing urgent in it as all the episodes have been aired.

It also asked how the actors could be held liable for enacting their characters.

The court said a person is entitled to express his views, which may be right or wrong, and asked the petitioner to satisfy it on how the court could interject.

"Are there other remarks in the series or any other material as far as Rajiv Gandhi is concerned? You don't require any CBFC certificate before airing?" the Bench asked.

The court was hearing a plea filed by petitioner advocate Nikhil Bhalla, through advocate Shashank Garg. It contends that the show, starring Saif Ali Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, "incorrectly depicts historical events of the country like Bofors case, Shah Bano case, Babri Masjid case and communal riots".

Senior advocate Chander Lal, appearing for Netflix, and senior advocate Rajiv Nayar, representing production house Phantom, said the series has eight episodes that have already been aired and does not require a CBFC (Central Board of Film Certification) certificate.

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Kayakalp: Why Sacred Games could be Indian television's Lagaan moment

The first Netflix original India series, Sacred Games, represents a brave new direction that Indian television could take.

“Ja ke dekh record mein, kaun hai! Insaan hai ke bhagwan?”

Ganesh Eknath Gaitonde calls Sartaj Singh one night, like a god, and thus begins a story that would eventually take hold of both on-screen characters and audiences off it.

“Aham Brahmasmi,” he tells Sartaj later on; underlining the god complex that Gaitonde is suffering from in the story. Sartaj is the confused soul and Gaitonde pretends to show him the way. Sacred Games is a story of these two voices, their story arcs intersecting somewhere in different time periods.

Gaitonde is played by the absolutely brilliant Nawazuddin Siddiqui, while the Sikh cop, Sartaj Singh, is played by Saif Ali Khan, who also does a good job. Netflix’s first original India series is based on a book by the same name, written by Vikram Chandra. The voluminous novel has been adapted for the screen by Varun Grover, Smita Singh and Vasant Nath. The adaptation stays true to the atmospherics of the book and manages to recreate a compelling, dark, dingy underbelly of the metropolis called Mumbai.

The series is a carefully choreographed dance of Mumbai underworld, and the city’s police and political forces, both local and national. Two of India’s top film directors, Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane, come together to direct this breakthrough series. This isn’t a first for an Indian television series; Ramesh Sippy (Buniyaad), Shyam Benegal (Discovery of India) and Basu Chatterjee (Byomkesh Bakshi) have done it earlier too.

In Kashyap’s first feature film, Black Friday, the chief investigator of Bombay blasts (played by KK) interrogates Asghar Muqadam. A scared, breathless, slightly incoherent Muqadam was performed by Nawazuddin Siddiqui; his first famous movie scene. In Sacred Games, Kashyap directs underworld don Gaitonde’s story. Nawazuddin performs the role as if Chandra wrote it in the book with only him in mind.

Unlike Muqadam, Gaitonde is not scared or incoherent. He, after all, thinks he is god. And he draws the queasy Sartaj Singh in. The story then keeps shuttling between the past and the present as layer after layer is carefully revealed to the viewer and an engrossing puzzle slowly falls into place. Saif Ali Khan does a good job as Sartaj, portraying his doubts, his helplessness and his curiosity well on the screen. Director Vikramaditya Motwane helms Sartaj’s story in the series and brings out those layers well as Sartaj battles with his past and present.

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