Netflix is marking its tenth anniversary in India this year. Over the past decade, the streaming giant has evolved from introducing premium originals like Sacred Games, a show that reshaped India’s streaming landscape, to building a diverse slate that now spans true-crime documentaries, reality television with shows like Lock Upp, comedy through The Great Indian Kapil Show, and an expanding lineup of original films and scripted series. Speaking at the Express Adda, hosted by Anant Goenka, Executive Director of The Indian Express Group, Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos spoke about the platform’s programming philosophy and why Netflix believes it must cater to both mainstream and niche audiences rather than choosing one over the other.‘You have to do both classy and massy’“If you want to serve the world, if you want to entertain the world, which is our mantra, then you have to have something for everybody. And I don’t think people think about it as classy and massy. Maybe thought leaders think about it that way. Maybe executives think about it that way. But consumers don’t love their massy choice any less than you love your classy choice. So we’ve got to serve both, and we have to be able to do both,” Ted Sarandos said.Sarandos explained that Netflix’s approach has always been to broaden its offering instead of shifting from one kind of content to another. He pointed out that the company’s original programming journey began with House of Cards before steadily expanding into multiple genres. “Now, when we came in, you have to start somewhere. In the US, and globally, we started with one, arguably high-end scripted series, House of Cards. And think about it: from that day forward, we moved into television shows, original movies, documentaries, stand-up comedy, competition shows, unscripted shows. We do everything that you want to watch,” he said.‘People love Lock Upp’Drawing from Netflix India’s current catalogue, Ted Sarandos cited Lock Upp and Musafir Cafe as examples of how the platform balances different kinds of storytelling. “So I never felt it was like we started here and we’re moving there. It’s that we’re doing all of those things. We want to be classy and massy. Right now in India, you’ve got people who really love Lock Upp. It’s enormously popular, and everyone’s talking about it.” When it was suggested that Lock Upp may not be considered “classy,” Sarandos laughed and replied, “I’m not judging. I think it’s quite classy, in fact.” He continued, “But then you’ve got Musafir Cafe, which is a beautiful love story with beautifully shot landscapes, or something much more like what you’d probably call classy, right? But they sit right next to each other, serving gigantic audiences. And that’s what we have to do. We have to do both.”Also Read | 700 failed auditions, mounting debts: Sharib Hashmi says wife kept his acting dream alive‘Star is very important’During the conversation, Ted Sarandos also reflected on the importance of star power in a market like India, where actors often play a significant role in driving audience interest. “Absolutely. Star is very, very important,” he said. However, he stressed that casting alone cannot guarantee a project’s success and that the role must align with audience expectations of the actor. “Not just that, but it has to be the star in the vehicle that you’re talking about. A lot of times, you can’t just put a star in a role that people don’t necessarily want to see them in. If people want to see the star in a particular kind of role, the one they expect to see them in, you just can’t count on that alone.”Sarandos added that having a major star also provides a degree of confidence when backing large-scale productions, as it helps ensure greater visibility and audience reach for the project.