MUMBAI: What happenswhen a video store clerk-turned-media mogul sits down with a new-gen Indian billionaire?
Streaming gold.
In a riveting episode of People by WTF, Netflix co-ceo Ted Sarandos spilt the tea, dropped truth bombs, and dished out storytelling wisdom in an electric tête-à-tête with Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath.
From his Phoenix roots to Hollywood power tables—and yes, dinners with Shah Rukh Khan—Ted held nothing back.
Sarandos shared his origin story: a would-be journalist whose real education came behind the counter at a video rental store. That humble setting gave him a ringside view of consumer desire—something he scaled up spectacularly at Netflix. “People hated late fees, but they loved discovering something new,” he quipped, summing up the genesis of Netflix’s ‘everything, anytime’ model.
Sarandos’ India story was peppered with glam. He reminisced about his first meal with SRK—“very different in Mumbai than in LA”—and lauded Aryan Khan’s directorial chops in The Ba**ds of Bollywood*. His creative crush? Sanjay Leela Bhansali. “Heeramandi felt like a dare… he pitched it in LA like, ‘I dare you to make this’,” said Ted, still in awe.
“For 10 years, I heard India was two years away,” Sarandos laughed. “Now, it feels truer than ever.” With local stories making global noise—think RRR or Kapil Sharma—Netflix doubled down. Sarandos noted that Indian audiences aren’t just watching Bollywood. They are binging Korean anime, true crime, Tamil action, and Turkish dramas with equal zest. “This market’s appetite is unmatched,” he said.
On leadership, Sarandos kept it brutally real. “Work-life balance? That’s a fantasy,” he shrugged. His playbook: take big swings, fail fast, and hire smart. He credited Netflix’s risk-positive culture to Reed Hastings, who saw streaming coming when dial-up ruled the world. “In 1999, Reed said, ‘Everything will come through the internet.’ It sounded crazy. Turns out, he was right.”
Sarandos bet big on local stories going global. “Squid Game was never supposed to be a global hit. But great stories travel.” He stays bullish on AI—so long as humans lead the charge. “The art of the prompt will be a human skill,” he remarked, calling AI a cost cutter, not a creator killer. “It’ll help make better films, but won’t replace human imagination or emotion.”
From gaming titles like Grand Theft Auto to video-forward podcasts, Netflix’s empire keeps expanding. Sarandos sees serious returns in content creation. “The best ROI? Still content. Delivery and monetisation are evolving faster than ever,” he noted.
His advice to young creators? Make the coffee. “Be a PA, join a writers’ room, see if this is what you really want. Passion often follows excellence,” he urged, advising rookies not to reverse-engineer Netflix’s tastes, but pitch what needs to be told.
The full episode of People by WTF featuring Ted Sarandos streamed on YouTube—popcorn highly recommended.
