With my experience in product and leadership for two decades, I kept thinking, what can we, as leaders, learn from this? Because this is not just about a show. It is about the "bigger calls" we take when we enter a new market or shape a new vision. And sometimes, we look back and question our boldest bets.
But let us rewind.
When Netflix launched in India with Sacred Games, it did something brave. Sacred Games was not perfect. But it was fearless, gritty, and cinematic. And it marked a turning point for Indian OTT storytelling. The problem was not the launch. The problem was the lack of a strong second wave of equally good content. 💪
And if I were to rethink things as a leader aiming for sustainable growth, I would start by restructuring and re-evaluating the content curation team. This middle layer is broken, especially for many big OTTs in India, where content acquisition favors familiar faces over compelling stories. As a result, we got shows with huge budgets but low soul. High-star, low-substance titles like Murder Mubarak or Dabba Cartel, The Royals etc. But in the shadows, hundreds of incredible indie films and series never saw the light of day. Why? Because someone from Content Curation Room did not want to take a bet. 🙈
So I think Netflix and many other OTTs right now is lacking in evaluating their product from cultural-fitness perspective. And here is what I think as a product and tech leader:
* Sacred Games was never the problem, treating culture as an afterthought was
* Focusing only on scale, and not on depth Was
Netflix did not need a more populist launch. It needed more Sacred Games, again and again. More bets that trusted voice over volume. And that brings me to leadership. When you take a bold call, you will not always get immediate applause.
But leadership is not just about vision and strategy.
It is about standing by the uncomfortable choices when others doubt them.
And knowing that some decisions are about what you want to stand for, not just what returns the quickest numbers. If anything, the Sacred Games episode is a reminder that long-term brand value is not built by being safe. It is built by being right before everyone else agrees.
What do you think? Are we too quick to question the bold moves? Is culture-market fit still underrated in global strategy? Would love to hear from leaders
PS: I always meant Sacred Games Season 1 when I mentioned Sacred Games 😄
Leadership CultureMarketFit ProductMarketFit OTTIndia Netflix SacredGames ContentCuration BoldDecisions StrategyAndExecution BuildingForIndia
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