Bollywood filmmaker Karan Johar and Netflix have broken off their exclusive content agreement signed in September 2019 whereby Johar’s digital content studio Dharmatic Entertainment was to provide all its content – fiction and non-fiction series and films – only to Netflix. “The deal has been called off and Dharmatic can now work with other video streaming services too,” reported ET.
A source of Economic Times reported “There are multiple projects which have already been green-lighted or announced, and deliveries of these are over the next 12-18 months,” the person said. “Then there are some returning seasons too. However, will they work together after that is not yet clear?” The source further claimed that “too much interference” from Netflix has been one of the major reasons for the exclusive agreement to be called off. “The entire (content) industry knows it. They (Netflix) want everything in a certain way and sometimes it’s frustrating and confusing. There is a disconnect between what they want and what they say,” the source said further.
Dharmic, a digital content wing of Johar’s Dharma Productions, is presently functioning on the new series ‘Finding Anamika’, and the next season of ‘Fabulous Lives Of Bollywood Wives’. There is also a forthcoming film, ‘Meenakshi Sundareshwar’ apart from a few other projects in the pipeline. However, it was Netflix’s largest agreement yet in the Indian market as an exclusivity section was bound to it.
Moreover, last month, Netflix confirmed a multi-year agreement with Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar’s Excel Entertainment. As part of the non-exclusive contract, the production house will make a variety of shows and movies under its series banner Excel Media and Entertainment, beginning with ‘Dabba Cartel’ and ‘Queen of the Hill’.
