Squid Game and Lupin exemplify Netflix’s focus on local-language shows that its Indian-American head of global TV has championed and which is generating new worldwide audiences
- Bela Bajaria joined Netflix in 2016 and was promoted to her current role following the success of Indian Matchmaking and other popular shows she championed
- Growing up in the US as an Indian girl who ‘never saw myself really kind of anywhere’, she emphasises the importance of storytelling from different backgrounds
Something clicked after Netflix executive Bela Bajaria watched a 2017 documentary called A Suitable Girl, about arranged marriages in India, and spoke with one of its directors.
Bajaria’s parents had once organised dates for her with potential suitors, and she knew the stakes were much higher than what’s seen on typical US dating shows – family drama, clashing cultural traditions and suspense over whether the couple will marry. Bajaria felt such tension was worth exploring in a reality series.
She discussed the idea with one of the documentary’s filmmakers, Smriti Mundhra, and the result was Indian Matchmaking. The reality show, which premiered last year, follows the lives of Indians and Indian-Americans as they navigate dating with the help of a matchmaker.
The unscripted series in English and Hindi was a hit, watched by a quarter of Netflix’s members in India and millions of subscribers outside India in its first four weeks.
“I understood that push-pull of America and love and arranged marriages and what that means, and so that Indian matchmaker show I really understood on a deeper level,” Bajaria says. “I understood when my parents asked me to do it, even though I fought with them about it.”
The success of Indian Matchmaking and other popular shows championed by Bajaria led to her promotion last year as head of global TV at Netflix, where she oversees the team that handles TV content for Netflix’s more than 209 million global subscribers.