I'm from Btown. With its latest Indian content, Netflix has really made a statement about what it can do with original content made for this market. Consciously working with the best in Bollywood and giving them creative freedom that the internet provides (traditionally censor board in India is conservative and absurd).
Amazon Prime too has made strides in acquiring and producing content for the Indian market. But both have clearly taken a different stance in doing so. Amazon is quick to acquire bollywood movies for Prime and from Netflix's latest content, it appears that they have potential to replace bollywood bangers.
I hate consuming movies on Amazon Prime Video in India. Their self-censorship is worse than the Censor board.
Just one of my recent experiences - A well made movie "Shahid" - There's a scene where the two guys are in jail having a chat. An entire line just gets censored and Shahid's shocked reaction means the scene was important.
I then found the movie on Netflix. The line they censored was - "This country doesn't give a shit about it's minority". Wtf?! Are we that insecure that we need to Censor stuff like that.
That's just one example, it's almost impossible to watch Shahid and other similar movies on Amazon. Which is weird because they are on the Internet, they don't have a Censor body governing their content!
I think if Netflix is smart and continues on this path then they can really cause a disruption in movie production houses in India.
The current Indian movie production houses are family or driven by an individual's vision (whether Karan Johar's, Salman Khan's, Yash Chopra's..). The new age creatives don't have sponsors who can relate to the way they want to a tell story or the theme of the stories that they want to tell.
It is not very unlike tech funding situation.
The Indian movie industry is perhaps where tech industry and funding was half century ago. The VCs of that era probably had very specific non-risky areas that they wanted to invest in and there was no way to get funding if you had an idea which was way beyond their comprehension or comfort zone.
Netflix with their war-chest, openness and brand equity has a true opportunity to steamroll the existing archaic business practices which probably hasn't evolved over last 100 years.
Total tangent. Amazon Prime's video library here in Australia disapointed me to such an extend that I unsubscribed within minutes of subscribing.
The dashboard has recommendations. In those recommendations, on this single page, Twilight appeared 26 (TWENTY SIX) times.
Any other page I'd go to would also have several instances of it recommending me a Twilight movie. I literally couldn't find enough decent movies because almost every other movie was from that series.
It was the shortest lived account I've ever owned.
Given the whole thing where Richard Gere kissing an actress resulted in an entire city shut down with riots for a couple days... how exactly is this going to work out?
Most bollywood fare needs to cater to the masses (a large chunk of whom are semi-literate) in order to make money. Netflix's audience is by nature literate and middle-class with a decent internet connection at home. They can happily switch between Hindi, English and don't mind reading subtitles for Marathi if they don't already speak it.
Kudos to them for recognizing this market at the very least and attempting a show like this. I binged watched the show in 3 days and while it was interesting and wildy different from normal bollywood fare, I did not find it ultra amazing or anything compared to, say AGOT for example.
I had the same feeling. Nothing awesome about the show. One thing I have begun to dislike with Netflix in general is most of their shows are extreme. Either too violent and dark or way too silly. I cannot watch them just for the sake of time pass or enjoyment without having negative emotions that sometimes lasts for days. Nowadays, even with a Netflix account, 99% of my TV is YouTube. Still I decided to watch Sacred Games since its based on India. Violence and sex on it were not something we would see in an Indian TV show, but overall entertainment value was lacking. The RAW officers were too simple. I find it hard to believe that this is how they operate. Also, its strange that some Indians think showing sex scenes as progressive. I don't want to see sex in regular movie. If I want to watch sex, I will go and watch porn. If one wants to see violence and gore, there are plenty of other websites. Please don't bring it to the masses in the name of progressiveness. Before anybody labels me as Taliban, I fully support public nudity. But sex scenes in these shows and movies are not real. Nudity in movies is a cheap way to get the audience. Make a mediocre show, sprinkle some sex scenes and violence here and there, profit.
I've watched a couple modern Indian films recently, and the characters switch effortlessly between English and Hindi, sometimes in mid-sentence. More than once I even saw one character ask a question in Hindi and the other quote them in English: for example, (in Hindi:) 'Aren't I the smartest guy in the world?'; (in English:) 'No, you aren't "the smartest guy in the world".'.
I've been wondering: What is the subtext, what are the implications, of using English or of switching languages? There must be some and I'm missing the subtleties.
It's hilarious watching my wife's aunts talk. They grew up in Hyderabad in a Sindhi household but emigrated to UK. They effortlessly switch between Telugu, Hindi, Sindhi, and English in the same conversation.
Yeah, this happens whenever people speak more than one language. My experience of it with English and Spanish is that there are some things that are more fluidly expressed in one language or another, or there's a joke that's only possible in one, or there's a joke that's only possible by combining. It just expands your vocab a lot, basically, so you get access to a wider range of nuanced connotations.
Happens to me all the time when speaking to another French/English bilingual person. I think it's just a result of multilingualism, people pick whichever language they're more comfortable using for specific topics. For instance I have a hard time talking about tech in French, despite it being my first language.
> Hinglish, a portmanteau of Hindi and English,[1] is the macaronic hybrid use of English and South Asian languages from across the Indian subcontinent, involving code-switching between these languages whereby they are freely interchanged within a sentence or between sentences.[2] While the name is based on the Hindi language, it does not refer exclusively to Hindi, but "is used in India, with English words blending with Punjabi, and Hindi, and also in British Asian families to enliven standard English".
Vernacular use has not many such "subtleties", except maybe that some sentences flow better when translated to English.
I have not seen much vernacular use of this "quoting" phenomenon you noticed in sacred games, I think that is mainly to offer a clearer understanding to a multilingual audience.
Modern Urdu on the Pakistan side of the border is quite similar. The amount of English that is worked into Urdu in a higher budget TV or movie production is increasing. Or watch any of the major Pakistani TV news channels (Geo, etc) for an example.
Unfortunately I don't think it will last. Indian government + its agencies are very conservative and I'm sure they will be making attempts at censoring Netflix in India.
Scared Games is awesome. There's also another original documentary series Netflix recently launched which is 'Wild Wild Country' and its based on cult Indian figure Osho and the time he spent in Oregon. It's worth watching too.
It's not just 'Sacred Games'. Other Netflix originals like 'Lust Stories' are breaking the Bollywood mould and telling stories that are too taboo for Bollywood. Great job, Netflix!
To be honest, its less about being a Taboo (see films like Chameli, Chandni Bar, Fashion) have tried telling taboo stories. Its the censor board which is so inconsistent that it doesn't even make sense. This platform helps them bypass it and its working, and its also being accepted by the viewers . Win-Win-Win
I wasn't expecting much from lust stories, but it was surprisingly (for me) good and compelling. Sacred games was everything I expected and more! Hopefully moves like this will raise the bar for TV programming across the country. Or atleast for the target audience I'm part of.
In a world where state backed religions and religion backed states exists. Where the funds and man power set aside for religious expansion in the organised religions is more than the defence budgets of many countries. Censorship and reflection of bias is important.
Most of the series has unforced graphic scenes and vulgarity. It's just gangs of wassrypur set in Mumbai with more vulgarity because it was produced for Netflix.
I agree with you, I was surprised to see this on the front page as well. I guess it's because this is Netflix's [being a California tech company] first real effort to enter the Indian market. Hence it implies the consequences this launch could have on its position [and Prime's too] in the Indian market as it establishes itself in a country with a [relatively] mature entertainment / cinema industry.
Now that it's here, it's good for you to have commented here expressing your concern.
However, the comments you've linked surprise me even more as they represent pure hate. I'm curious to know which forum they are from, anyone?
> Sacred games is nothing but crude vulgarity and promotion of foul language at an extreme
You claim here, and at other places in this thread, leftist bias in comments. And yet your entire comment reeks of Indian right-wing conservative propaganda.
Look into the value of coherence in moral philosophical standpoints.
[+] [-] r_singh|7 years ago|reply
Amazon Prime too has made strides in acquiring and producing content for the Indian market. But both have clearly taken a different stance in doing so. Amazon is quick to acquire bollywood movies for Prime and from Netflix's latest content, it appears that they have potential to replace bollywood bangers.
[+] [-] asenna|7 years ago|reply
Just one of my recent experiences - A well made movie "Shahid" - There's a scene where the two guys are in jail having a chat. An entire line just gets censored and Shahid's shocked reaction means the scene was important.
I then found the movie on Netflix. The line they censored was - "This country doesn't give a shit about it's minority". Wtf?! Are we that insecure that we need to Censor stuff like that.
That's just one example, it's almost impossible to watch Shahid and other similar movies on Amazon. Which is weird because they are on the Internet, they don't have a Censor body governing their content!
[+] [-] achow|7 years ago|reply
The current Indian movie production houses are family or driven by an individual's vision (whether Karan Johar's, Salman Khan's, Yash Chopra's..). The new age creatives don't have sponsors who can relate to the way they want to a tell story or the theme of the stories that they want to tell.
It is not very unlike tech funding situation.
The Indian movie industry is perhaps where tech industry and funding was half century ago. The VCs of that era probably had very specific non-risky areas that they wanted to invest in and there was no way to get funding if you had an idea which was way beyond their comprehension or comfort zone.
Netflix with their war-chest, openness and brand equity has a true opportunity to steamroll the existing archaic business practices which probably hasn't evolved over last 100 years.
[+] [-] richforrester|7 years ago|reply
The dashboard has recommendations. In those recommendations, on this single page, Twilight appeared 26 (TWENTY SIX) times.
Any other page I'd go to would also have several instances of it recommending me a Twilight movie. I literally couldn't find enough decent movies because almost every other movie was from that series.
It was the shortest lived account I've ever owned.
Apologies for the rant. Am disappointed.
[+] [-] dhruvarora013|7 years ago|reply
Overall I think with 2-day shipping, Amazon Music and Video for little under $20/yr, Amazon is doing a great job in acquiring users so far.
[+] [-] otakucode|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wheresvic1|7 years ago|reply
Kudos to them for recognizing this market at the very least and attempting a show like this. I binged watched the show in 3 days and while it was interesting and wildy different from normal bollywood fare, I did not find it ultra amazing or anything compared to, say AGOT for example.
[+] [-] nonamechicken|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] forapurpose|7 years ago|reply
I've been wondering: What is the subtext, what are the implications, of using English or of switching languages? There must be some and I'm missing the subtleties.
EDIT: clarification
[+] [-] puranjay|7 years ago|reply
It's called "code switching"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code-switching
It's hilarious watching my wife's aunts talk. They grew up in Hyderabad in a Sindhi household but emigrated to UK. They effortlessly switch between Telugu, Hindi, Sindhi, and English in the same conversation.
[+] [-] pmichaud|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] AYBABTME|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] happy-go-lucky|7 years ago|reply
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinglish
> Hinglish, a portmanteau of Hindi and English,[1] is the macaronic hybrid use of English and South Asian languages from across the Indian subcontinent, involving code-switching between these languages whereby they are freely interchanged within a sentence or between sentences.[2] While the name is based on the Hindi language, it does not refer exclusively to Hindi, but "is used in India, with English words blending with Punjabi, and Hindi, and also in British Asian families to enliven standard English".
[+] [-] pavanky|7 years ago|reply
This isn't uncommon among multi lingual people.
[+] [-] namanyayg|7 years ago|reply
I have not seen much vernacular use of this "quoting" phenomenon you noticed in sacred games, I think that is mainly to offer a clearer understanding to a multilingual audience.
[+] [-] walrus01|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] calvinbhai|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] shaan7|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] psergeant|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gordon_freeman|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Jenya_|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hannofcart|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] iKSv2|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bcosynot|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] naruvimama|7 years ago|reply
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vV5eE3SENo0
Takes a good look at bias and dishonesty in Bollywood. Netflix can also fall victim to "moles" just like the BBC.
[+] [-] TheArcane|7 years ago|reply
It's amazing how the conservative Hindu majority of India has been convinced that they're in danger of unseen forces.
[+] [-] codecrusade|7 years ago|reply
more here https://www.quora.com/Why-does-Bollywood-glorify-Islam-and-m...
[+] [-] SuperNinKenDo|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] _blz2|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] codecrusade|7 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] codecrusade|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] actuator|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] r_singh|7 years ago|reply
Now that it's here, it's good for you to have commented here expressing your concern.
However, the comments you've linked surprise me even more as they represent pure hate. I'm curious to know which forum they are from, anyone?
[+] [-] r_singh|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hsljekskfh|7 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] codecrusade|7 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] TheArcane|7 years ago|reply
You claim here, and at other places in this thread, leftist bias in comments. And yet your entire comment reeks of Indian right-wing conservative propaganda.
Look into the value of coherence in moral philosophical standpoints.
[+] [-] rtcoolaid|7 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] cloudblockchain|7 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] yeritons|7 years ago|reply
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