Netflix and Yash Raj Films team up for multi-year creative partnership 

Global streaming major, Netflix and Yash Raj Films (YRF), one of the biggest film production and distribution companies in India have joined hands to form a multi-year creative partnership. This is with the objective of creating films and web series to reach out to the Indian and global audience.

The first projects to come out of the partnership will be Railway Men, a four-part series starring R Madhavan and Kay Kay Menon, and Maharaj, which will mark the debut of Aamir Khan’s son Junaid Khan. Addressing the media in Mumbai, Monika Shergill, Vice President (Content), Netflix India, said streaming services have managed to bring about a significant shift in how entertainment has been consumed in India. “It is now possible to reach out to a larger audience base globally. We have also seen how movies post a theatrical release do well on OTT.” To her mind, it is a clear case of the audience not having changed but how there is a marked difference in tastes.

Specifically, on the partnership, she explained that it has been in the making for two years and that ability to execute storytelling at scale was the big link between Netflix and YRF.  “Globally, Netflix works with the best producers and we are doing the same thing here. It gives us an opportunity to reach out to the best audience,” said Shergill. According to Akshaye Widhani, YRF’s CEO the synergies between the two were a big plus. “This is a big step in YRF’s ambition to go global. Our content is viewed in at least 100 countries and Netflix operates in over 190 countries. In that sense, it will only increase the size of the potential audience,” he said. The two entities worked together on The Romantics, a web series released last year on the legacy of veteran producer-director, Yash Chopra and founder of Yash Raj Films. “The success of that surprised us with respect to scale, reach and very positive audience feedback,” added Widhani.