'Ted Sarandos Is Definition Of Dumb': Anurag Kashyap SLAMS Netflix CEO Over His Sacred Games Comment

Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap criticised Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos after the latter said in a recent interview that launching the OTT platform in India with the web series, Sacred Games, was a mistake. The show was directed and produced by Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane.

Sarandos said on Nikhil Kamath's podcast, that if he could do it all over again, he would release Sacred Games on Netflix India two years later than it originally did. He wondered if it was not the ideal show to launch the platform with in India, and that they should have gone with something "more populist".

This comment did not go well with Kashyap, who didn't hold himself back, and slammed Sarandos. "He should have started with Saas Bahu.. he would have done well. Which he is doing now (sic)," he wrote, seemingly taking a dig at Netflix's brand new deal with Ektaa Kapoor.

"I always knew the tech guys are dumb when it comes to story telling but @tedsarandos is the definition of dumb is what I didn’t know. Good to discover that. This explains everything now (sic)," Kashyap added.

Sarandos is yet to respond to Kashyap's jibe, but fans of the show backed the filmmaker in the comments section of his post. "Sacred Games was a doorway to web series in India (sic)," a user commented, while another wrote, "Sacred Games was actually the show that got Netflix in the game (sic)."

Singer and The Royals actress Lisa Mishra too backed Kashyap and stated how most of the shows on OTT now take cues from Sacred Games. "Everything in ott is derivative now anyways, and specifically derivative of sacred games (sic)," she commented.

Sacred Games was a neo-noir crime thriller, based on Vikram Chandra's novel of the same name. It traced the story of Sartaj Singh, a cop played by Saif Ali Khan, who sets out to hunt gangster Ganesh Gaitonde, played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui, after the latter threatens to blow up the city of Mumbai in 25 days.

The show also starred Radhika Apte, Surveen Chawla, Kalki Koechlin, Ranvir Shorey, Pankaj Tripathi, Amruta Subhash, Elnaaz Norouzi, Rajshri Deshpande, Neeraj Kabi, Kubbra Sait, Amey Wagh, and others in key roles.