Ektaa Kapoor seemingly took a jibe at filmmaker Anurag Kashyap over his remarks against Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos following the streamer’s deal with Ekta’s TV production banner for content in India.
In an Instagram story that seemed aimed squarely at Kashyap, Ekta wrote, “You are so dumb... saying this puts you at an advantage ‘I’m smarter, cooler’ but naaaaaaaa! Darling, how about gracious!!! and self-aware?????? An art that a lot of artists don't have.”
“‘Saas bahu’ and their impact on Indian masses (how women got a voice in mass India) is well documented by prestigious Chicago research,” the 50-year-old producer wrote.
Ekta Kapoor's Instagram post Instagram
The post came in the wake of Kashyap’s recent outburst on social media, where the Sacred Games co-creator criticised Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos for expressing doubts over launching the streamer’s India slate with the 2018 crime thriller.
“He should have started with Saas Bahu .. he would have done well. Which he is doing now Z I always knew the tech guys are dumb when it comes to storytelling but @tedsarandos is the definition of dumb is what I didn’t know. Good to discover that. This explains everything now,” Kashyap wrote.
Sarandos, speaking on entrepreneur Nikhil Kamath’s podcast, had said, “Our very first Indian original show was Sacred Games. And I thought, ‘This is going to be great. People in India love movies. This is a TV show that feels as big as a movie, it has movie stars.’ What’s interesting about it is that it was very, very novel, but what I didn’t understand [was] that we were introducing a brand new kind of entertainment in a country the size of India.”
“If I did it all over again, would I have done Sacred Games a couple of years later, and did things that were more populist. Maybe,” Sarandos added.
While Kashyap took umbrage at Sarandos’s suggestion, Ekta seemed more incensed by Kashyap’s choice of words. Without referring to Kashyap directly, she accused unnamed artists of dressing up elitism as artistic merit. “But artists who talk of an inclusive world are actually more classist. We must do away with this ‘U can't sit with us, we're better’ attitude for democracy and fair play! Love n light to all,” she added.
The row comes at a time when Netflix has announced a fresh collaboration with Ekta’s Balaji Telefilms, signalling a renewed focus on content with mass appeal. The announcement, made on the producer’s birthday, read, “Netflix and Ekta Kapoor's Balaji Telefilms come together in a creative collaboration to craft compelling stories across formats.”