If one thought only Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi was espousing the sub-nationalism rhetoric to devise the voters and extend the North and South divide in India, brace yourselves for a multinational corporation doing the same. California-based OTT platform Netflix Inc. is out and about to target India’s territorial integrity.
Akin to Rahul Gandhi, the streaming giant has also played on the string of sub-nationalism to sell its subscriptions in India. Reportedly, Netflix has a Netflix India South Twitter account which is separate from the Netflix India account exclusively to promote content from Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada movies. However, the separation of channels has invited scathing criticism from a section of the netizens who are demanding Netflix to not divide India for its monetary gains.
Vanakkam. Namaskaram. Swagatham. Namaskara 🙏
— Netflix India South (@Netflix_INSouth) July 7, 2021
While it may look like a harmless ploy from the outset, the closer you get to the core of the matter, the sooner you will realise that Netflix is attempting an effective ‘divide and make bucks’ strategy to break open the Indian market.
You see, there are fault lines that still exist in India that the previous government regimes have helped widen ever since we gained independence. The biggest one of them is the regional divide. The North and South are often at loggerheads with each other in trying to superimpose their identity.
Netflix actively attempting to polarise the viewers
Whether it be through the culture or the language spoken – both regions are hot when pitted against each other. Then there are the woke, leftists on both sides that tend to infiltrate the ranks with their Jai Bheem, Jai Meem, Periyar and Dravidian identity ideas.
In the current scenario where a proverbial war has broken out between the Southern film industry and the Hindi Bollywood industry – the divide between content and its marketing can set a dangerous precedent. The South is at an ascendency at the moment with most of the blockbuster hits coming from the region only. Meanwhile, Bollywood is currently pinned on the mat and is finding it hard to compete with the vision of the Southern film industry.
Thus, when a platform actively divides its subscribers who all are paying the same amount into South and all of India – it inadvertently sends a message that the priority is the South and other regions are not equal, if not important. A divide that starts harmlessly from a Twitter channel quickly grows into a cultural war and before one attempts to arrest the slide, it leads to the call of regional dominance over the other.
Netizens register their displeasure
A Twitter user registered their discontent against Netflix’s decision by remarking, “What is this netflix India south? What are you trying to imply? Are you trying to divide our Bharat @Netflix_INSouth”
https://twitter.com/secretlysaffron/status/1529467762371796992
Moreover, when the account was still in its infancy, the Netflix tuxedo executives sitting in the high-rise offices indulged in cultural appropriation by tweeting almost incorrigible, google translations as the channel content.
A Twitter user named Karthik Cheboli pointed out the errors made by Netflix India South and compiled a thread. Karthik elucidated that to announce the new channel Netlfix India South released ‘South Anthem’ featuring artists NJ, Arivu, SIRI and Hanumankind. Arivu a Tamil singer popularly known for his track ‘Enjoy Enjaami’ had to rap in Telugu.
However, Arivu, a native Tamil speaker wasn’t able to get the pronunciations of the words right and invited severe backlash from all quarters. Netizens thrashed Netflix and questioned the platform saying, ‘if it couldn’t hire a native Telugu rapper, what was the point of even making a new channel from scratch.’
But Netflix hasn't learnt their lesson. Today, they put this on their Twitter and Instagram. The sentence made no sense and no native speaker would speak like this. Looked like Google translate gone bad. The tweet was later deleted. pic.twitter.com/fwmAol6o4W
— Karthik Cheboli (@karthikcheboli) July 11, 2021
Netflix has not been able to breach the Indian market or audience
As reported extensively by TFI, earlier this year in January, Netflix co-founder, president and co-CEO Reed Hastings had a major public outburst after his company could not ace the Indian market as its subscribers count remained stagnant.
Calling the lack of success in the Indian market as “frustrating”, Reeds in a statement said, “In every single other major market, we have got the flywheel spinning. The thing that frustrates us is why haven’t we been as successful in India, but we are leaning in there. We have been operating there and learning more about Indian consumers’ tastes, et cetera, and that’s broadening the offering of the service across many, many different dimensions.”
Read More: Netflix stock sinks by 22% and a lot of it has to do with India
It is pertinent to note that Netflix had long positioned India, with its population of 1.4 billion, as a key market. In 2018, two years after it launched in the country, CEO Reed Hastings predicted its next 100 million subscribers would come from India. But so far it has only garnered 5-6 million, according to analysts’ estimates.
Meanwhile, other OTT competitors like Disney+ Hotstar, Amazon Prime have shown tremendous growth pace and have outperformed Netflix by some distance. The key to grow in India is simple for Netflix. Adapt to the market, the spending habits of Indians and for almighty god’s sake, stop polarising India for the sake of subscribers.
