{"id":391636,"date":"2026-04-22T05:56:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T05:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/391636\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T05:56:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T05:56:12","slug":"netflix-indias-new-talent-bet-pays-off-as-toaster-hits-global-no-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/391636\/","title":{"rendered":"Netflix India’s New-Talent Bet Pays Off as ‘Toaster’ Hits Global No. 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIndian cinema is having a moment on Netflix<\/a> \u2014 and increasingly, it\u2019s first-timers leading the charge.<\/p>\n

\n\tVivek Das Chaudhary\u2019s debut feature \u201cToaster<\/a>\u201d has topped Netflix\u2019s Global Top 10 Non-English Films chart, arriving at No. 1 as part of a broader wave of Indian titles \u2014 several of them from debut and early-stage directors \u2014 that have been stacking up on the list in recent weeks. It\u2019s the latest evidence that the platform\u2019s long-running strategy of backing emerging Indian filmmakers is generating returns well beyond the subcontinent.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe dark comedy, produced by actor Rajkummar Rao<\/a> and his creative partner Patralekhaa under their newly launched KAMPA Films banner<\/a>, joins \u201cAccused\u201d \u2013 directed by Anubhuti Kashyap in only her second feature, which topped the Non-English chart and entered the Top 10 in 74 countries, the widest reach ever recorded for an Indian title on the platform \u2013 and \u201cMade in Korea,\u201d Netflix\u2019s first Tamil-language film shot in South Korea, which had three consecutive weeks on the Global Top 10.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor Ruchikaa Kapoor Sheikh, director of original films at Netflix India, the convergence is a direct outcome of how the team approaches creative partnerships. \u201cThe more authentic, the more local they\u2019ve been, we\u2019ve actually seen them break out and become far more global,\u201d she tells Variety. \u201cWe never wake up saying, \u2018This is a global title.’\u201d The philosophy, she explains, is to back filmmakers with distinctive, rooted convictions and trust that the work will travel on its own terms.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe numbers support the approach. An Indian film or series has appeared in Netflix\u2019s Global Top 10 every week throughout 2024 and 2025, and the volume of Indian titles on that list has grown sixfold since reporting began in July 2021. In 2025 alone, Indian content on the platform was viewed for more than 3.4 billion hours across 75 countries, the equivalent of roughly 65 million hours per week. Over 70% of Netflix viewing globally happens with subtitles or dubs, Kapoor Sheikh notes, and Indian titles are finding audiences in both high- and low-diaspora markets alike \u2013 from Argentina and Egypt to South Korea, Morocco, Bolivia and Taiwan.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cToaster,\u201d which premiered on the platform April 15, is Das Chaudhary\u2019s first feature and KAMPA\u2019s debut production. The film is set in Mumbai and built around a miserly protagonist whose circumstances spiral into escalating absurdity. Rao, who also stars in the film, says the project came to him and Patralekhaa as a single-page pitch that they developed over several months before bringing it to Netflix. \u201cThere\u2019s no formula to it,\u201d he tells Variety. \u201cYou\u2019d rather make something that you are really excited about.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe title itself was a deliberate choice rather than an accident of development. \u201cSomebody sitting in Japan, in the U.S., U.K., Thailand, India, would know what a toaster is,\u201d he says. The quirk of it, he reasoned, was the point \u2013 unusual enough to prompt a click, simple enough to travel anywhere.<\/p>\n

\n\tPatralekhaa, who took the lead as a hands-on producer while Rao concentrated on his performance, is at the center of KAMPA\u2019s longer ambition \u2013 to tell stories on tightly managed budgets, with a particular emphasis on empowering new directors and writers. For Das Chaudhary, making his first feature, the experience differed from what he had expected of a major platform. \u201cWhat I appreciated most was the trust they place in a filmmaker\u2019s vision \u2013 not just supporting it, but helping it grow,\u201d he tells Variety.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAccused\u201d took a different route to the screen. The concept for the film \u2013 a thriller centered on a lesbian couple, drawing on themes of sexual harassment and judgment \u2013 originated within Netflix India\u2019s own creative team, which then sought out Kashyap for her empathetic handling of dramatic material. \u201cThey reached out to me because they were looking for a woman filmmaker,\u201d Kashyap tells Variety. Once on board, she pulled the project toward restraint and a grounded tone, co-produced with Karan Johar\u2019s Dharma Productions. \u201cThe packaging of this film in terms of the thriller and the LGBT themes put together\u201d accounts for its global reach, she says.<\/p>\n

\n\tKapoor Sheikh notes that the move toward emerging voices has been intentional from the beginning, and the track record spans several years and genres. The platform has worked with first- and second-time directors including Honey Trehan (\u201cRaat Akeli Hai\u201d), Aditya Nimbalkar (\u201cSector 36\u201d), Arjun Varain Singh (\u201cKho Gaye Hum Kahan\u201d), Vivek Soni (\u201cMeenakshi Sundareshwar,\u201d \u201cAap Jaisa Koi\u201d) and Yashowardhan Mishra, whose \u201cKathal: A Jackfruit Mystery\u201d became the first Netflix India film to win the Indian National Film Award for best Hindi-language film. The process, she says, now reaches beyond Mumbai to encompass writers turning directors and regional talent moving across language lines. \u201cThe hunger that comes from new voices becomes very important to keep the flywheel going,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn the Tamil-language side, \u201cMade in Korea\u201d star Priyanka Mohan<\/a> \u2013 whose international profile grew substantially with the film\u2019s extended chart run \u2013 says the scale of the response has taken time to absorb. \u201cIt\u2019s still sinking in that a simple Tamil story is resonating with audiences around the world,\u201d she tells Variety.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe current chart performance \u2013 which also includes \u201cBorder 2\u201d and \u201cDhurandhar\u201d among Indian titles on the list in recent weeks \u2013 reflects what Kapoor Sheikh describes as a deliberate balance between emerging voices and established ones, with the ratio shifting over time. \u201cYou\u2019re going to see a lot of interesting writers that make the move\u201d to directing, she says, alongside regional filmmakers crossing into broader markets. The goal, in her framing, is a creative ecosystem fluid enough to hold both the first-time director and the returning marquee-name auteur \u2013 and in the current Global Top 10, that balance is visible in real time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Indian cinema is having a moment on Netflix \u2014 and increasingly, it\u2019s first-timers leading the charge. Vivek Das…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391637,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[156,409,1094,111,139,69,57353,41527,202480],"class_list":{"0":"post-391636","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-movies","10":"tag-netflix","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-priyanka-mohan","15":"tag-rajkummar-rao","16":"tag-toaster"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}