Netflix, an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming tv service, has launched a programme to coach rising inventive expertise in India because it expands its funding within the nation’s leisure business.

The Netflix India Storytelling Initiative will assist expertise improvement in animation, visible results, gaming and comics by partnerships with the Indian Institute of Artistic Applied sciences and the Nationwide Movie Growth Company.

Netflix described the initiative as a multi-phase investment in India’s inventive expertise pipeline.

Its first section will concentrate on coaching younger folks for work within the entertainment business. Netflix mentioned it’s going to assist specialised programs on the Indian Institute of Artistic Applied sciences and supply 100 scholarships for college students attending in-person programmes.

The programs will cowl areas together with animation, digital manufacturing, interactive comics, gaming administration and visual-effects workflows.

By means of its partnership with the Nationwide Movie Growth Company, Netflix may even assist coaching for audio-description writers and voice artists concerned in making movies and collection extra accessible.

“India has all the time been one of many world’s best storytelling nations. As we start our subsequent decade right here, we imagine our best funding is within the individuals who will inform India’s subsequent technology of tales,” Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos mentioned.

“Investing in creators is investing in India’s inventive future,” he added.

Sarandos meets Narendra Modi

The announcement adopted Sarandos’s assembly with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, 5 August. PM Modi mentioned India’s storytelling traditions and artistic expertise might assist strengthen its place as a worldwide centre for content material manufacturing.

Netflix mentioned it had made greater than 200 unique movies and collection and filmed at greater than 100 places throughout its first decade in India.

Glad to have met Mr. Ted Sarandos. Mentioned the immense potential of India’s media and leisure sector.

India has a wealthy custom of storytelling and a unprecedented pool of inventive expertise, which will be leveraged to strengthen our nation’s place as a worldwide hub for… https://t.co/8ufUEddPTv

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 5, 2026

Programme for rising writers

The Storytelling Initiative is separate from the Netflix NextGen India Writers’ Program, which was introduced on 2 July.

India is the third nation to host the worldwide programme, after France and the Netherlands.

It’s open to writers with not more than three years {of professional} expertise and can run for 2 months in a hybrid format.

Chosen contributors will obtain mentoring, workshops and sensible assist from business professionals. They are going to develop unique collection concepts into detailed proposals often known as collection bibles.

Functions opened on 1 July and can shut on 1 September 2026.

“Each nice story begins with a author,” Monika Shergill, vice-president of content material at Netflix India, mentioned when the programme was introduced.

Shergill mentioned it was designed to determine writers early of their careers and provides them alternatives to develop their expertise and concepts.

Throughout his go to, Sarandos and Shergill additionally met writers engaged on Netflix India productions.

Netflix mentioned the dialogue lined the altering craft of storytelling, inventive alternatives and the way forward for Indian leisure. It didn’t disclose the initiatives on which the writers had been working.

India central to Netflix development

Sarandos mentioned India was central to Netflix’s subsequent section of worldwide development due to its giant viewers, inventive neighborhood and rising use of smartphones and linked televisions.

He mentioned the nation couldn’t be approached as a single market due to its vary of languages, cultures and viewing preferences.

“There could possibly be no Netflix globally with out India. You’ll be able to’t achieve success with out it,” he advised The Financial Instances.