Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Wednesday to unveil the Netflix India Storytelling Initiative, a multi-phase investment designed to develop emerging creative talent, fund student scholarships, and expand workforce skills across India’s animation, visual effects, gaming, and comics ecosystem.
Marking a decade of operations in the country, streaming leadership arrived in the capital to formalize a long-term commitment to the domestic creative economy. The newly announced program aims to prepare the next generation of creators for global production standards while directly supporting national development ambitions.
Skilling Partnerships With IICT and the NFDC
The first phase of the initiative centers on youth training through strategic institutional alliances. Netflix will work alongside the Indian Institute of Creative Technologies to co-create curricula focused on visual effects mastery and media technology workflows, ensuring students graduate with production-ready skills.
Alongside curriculum development, the streamer is funding 100 scholarships for students enrolled in in-person programs at the institute. Those courses span interactive comics and sequential art, virtual art department content creation, character animation, and esports management.
In its second phase, the program joins forces with the National Film Development Corporation to build a specialized talent pipeline. The partnership will train audio description writers and voice talent, creating new jobs aimed at making films and series accessible to audiences with visual and hearing impairments.
Powering the Orange Economy and Viksit Bharat Goals
Executives framed the skilling effort around the growth of the animation, visual effects, gaming, and comics sector, which serves as a major engine for the country’s creative sector. Company leadership noted that the initiative directly aligns with broader governmental development frameworks.
“The initiative will help equip the next generation of storytellers with industry-relevant skills across the animation, visual effects, gaming and comics (AVGC) ecosystem, which serves as a key driver of India’s ‘Orange Economy’.”
Netflix, corporate statement via Business Standard
By fostering a future-ready workforce, the program supports the administration’s Viksit Bharat @ 2047 ambitions. The initiative seeks to strengthen local education pipelines while positioning the nation as a hub for global entertainment production.
A Decade of Expansion and Global Scale
Over the past ten years, the streaming platform has produced more than 200 original titles and filmed across over 100 locations nationwide. Company representatives pointed to ambitious domestic projects as proof of what local crews can accomplish on an international stage.
“India has always been one of the world’s greatest storytelling nations. Over the past decade, we’ve had the privilege of seeing Indian stories connect with audiences not just across India, but around the world. As we begin our next decade here, we believe our greatest investment is in the people who will tell India’s next generation of stories.”
Ted Sarandos, Co-CEO at Netflix
With production teams utilizing advanced domestic technical talent on large-scale projects like the patriotic series Operation Safed Sagar, leadership emphasized that long-term commercial success relies on expanding the creative workforce to support future storytelling ventures.
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