Netflix has been around for quite some time but the online entertainment channel made its mark in South Asia with the release of Lust Stories in June and more recently, Sacred Games in July. Lust Stories, according to Netflix was the “largest watched original in percentage terms” in its first month (source: CNN Money).
That means the movie was more popular with Netflix users in India than House of Cards or Narcos were with Netflix viewers in the United States when they were first released. Netflix has also just released another Indian original series called Ghoul and has six other shows in the pipeline. Needless to say, there are millions of dollars worth of investment and revenue being exchanged with these ideas.
One also notices several hit Pakistani TV dramas and films on Netflix; none of them are Netflix originals but regardless, the fact that they are available on the online portal has been a source of excitement for producers in Pakistan.
Is Netflix a profitable possibility for Pakistani filmmakers at the moment?
“Not for us. Not at the moment,” said Fahad Mustafa in a recent interview with Instep; the actor also runs Big Bang Entertainment and is into drama serial production. “For now, they don’t consider us anywhere. They only buy the content that is ready and get it for peanuts, which only benefits that particular person or production house whom they’ve bought it from. The advantage is that the world gets to see Pakistan’s name on the map but I feel that some of our much better content is available on iFlix. I also feel it’s wrong to be selling some of our best content for $1,500 - $2,000; iFlix pays the right money.”
That may change if things materialize in the right direction.
Zahid Ahmed, in November last year, confirmed that he had been signed on for the lead role in Netflix’s first original series from Pakistan and that did generate a lot of excitement. We hadn’t heard much about it since then but the actor, in a chat with Instep, confirmed that the project was very much in the works. He said that if approved as a ‘Netflix Original Series’, it would be shot and released next year.
That would be a game changer for original content from Pakistan.
