Netflix is no longer programming India only for urban, English-speaking households. It is redesigning its content engine for scale, to keep up with India’s tastes and preferences. India’s OTT audience reached 601.2 million in 2025, as per an Ormax report. Furthermore, the report said that 41% of India’s estimated 2025 population is consuming online video content.
“Our responsibility as an entertainment streaming service is to give the audience everything and more,” Monika Shergill, vice president, content at Netflix India, told PTI.
Speaking to PTI, Shergill said Netflix’s content strategy for India is built on the recognition that the country cannot be served through a narrow set of genres or formats. Instead, programming decisions are shaped by a combination of creative judgement and audience understanding, the PTI report said.
Programming India: art, science and judgement
Shergill described content commissioning for India as a “mix of art and science”, where intuition plays a significant role alongside data. “Intuition is very important and really understanding what speaks to a very wide range of audience, what speaks to certain specific sets of audience,” she told PTI.
Unlike traditional television, where a limited number of channels dictate what viewers watch, streaming platforms allow different kinds of content to coexist. That plurality, she said, is central to Netflix’s approach. It is not a single screen where a push format of content is available. It is a full format,” Shergill said, adding that different viewers come to the platform looking for different experiences.
Broadening appeal without abandoning range
The comments come amid a wider discussion on whether streaming platforms that began with niche storytelling have gradually shifted towards more mainstream programming. Shergill said expanding appeal is a natural part of growth, but argued that Netflix continues to back a wide range of stories. “It’s a natural journey to keep widening the funnel for your audiences to become more relevant and closer to your audiences,” she told PTI.
She pointed to Netflix titles such as Delhi Crime, Raat Akeli Hai and Kohrra, alongside mass-appeal shows and films, as examples of this breadth.
Some programmes draw large audiences, while others generate discussion and cultural engagement, she said. “Some stories are high watch, some are high conversation,” Shergill noted, adding that the two do not always overlap.
A larger and more varied slate
Netflix’s India slate for 2026 includes 30 projects, 19 series and 11 films, across genres and formats. The lineup features actors such as Sunny Deol, Madhuri Dixit, Saif Ali Khan and Anil Kapoor, with films including Ikka, Hum Hindustani and Kartavya, and series such as Family Business and Operation Safed Sagar.
The slate also includes new seasons of existing shows like Mamla Legal Hai 2 and Kohrra 2, and the final season of Mismatched. Netflix is also introducing new formats, including a telenovela-style show, as per the PTI.
According to Shergill, the slate was curated to ensure viewers have a choice. “When we are looking at the slate, it’s very important that we are always providing a huge variety and diversity, and that we are focusing on quality,” she said.
Letting audiences decide
Shergill said audience behaviour increasingly determines what the platform invests in. “The audiences are actually very smart. And eventually the agency has now come to the audiences,” she told PTI, adding that when Netflix backs more of a particular kind of content, it reflects what viewers have responded to.
Netflix’s objective, she said, is that whenever viewers log in, they find something that matches their mood, language and cultural context. “I feel that this year’s slate captures the many moods and flavours and genres that our audience really expects from a service like Netflix,” Shergill said in the interview with PTI.