When Netflix launched in India in 2016, it promised to revolutionise the cinematic landscape. The platform claimed it would deliver a wide range of original content, including series, films, and documentaries, with a special focus on local stories.
It did change the entertainment landscape in India, just not for the better.
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Netflix began as a DVD-by-mail service, but soon, its grand mission became “to entertain the world.”
But why is that a problem, you may ask?
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Netflix took local, original content from our country, repackaged it, and sold it to the world in a more “palatable” format.
If you look closely, you’ll notice how local cultures on screen have started to look suspiciously alike, like they’ve all been filtered through the same lens.
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Why is it that Indian prestige dramas that were once bold, political, and full of fire have now turned into royal tales of maharajas?
Why are small-town stories being pushed aside for mythology-inspired shows?
Why do the dialogues in films now feel like they’re written for global dubbing- so generic they could belong anywhere?
This is what Netflix has done: cultural homogenization. Everything has started to look the same, sound the same, and feel the same.
It’s no secret that Netflix quietly complies with government directives by muting religious critiques and dulling political satire.
The platform, powered by data, doesn’t expand our minds, it narrows them. Instead of liberating us, it traps us in echo chambers where surprise, rebellion, and discomfort are algorithmically erased.
It pacifies us. It numbs our imagination.
Netflix partners with Excel, Dharma, YRF—the “maharajas” of multiplex India, offering them lavish budgets and unchallenged visibility.
Meanwhile, the real creative underclass- independent artists, storytellers, outsiders- are left scrambling for crumbs, fighting to be seen.
The system Netflix has created mirrors our own reality: the elite thrive, while everyone else struggles just to survive.
In fact, when you think about it, Netflix begins to look eerily like a modern reincarnation of the East India Company.
Sure, some might argue, ‘But Netflix gave independent artists a platform.’
Yes, just like the British gave us railways.
Through film festivals and a few token projects, Netflix makes us feel like it’s doing good. But when weighed against everything else, the damage becomes clear.
Netflix came to change the landscape. And under its crimson red logo and that comforting “tudum” sound, it has slowly chipped away at the creativity of small cultures, making them easier to consume, easier to sell, and far easier to forget.
