Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos lauds Saif Ali Khan as first ‘big star’ on platform: ‘Working for 7 years, he is fantastic’

Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos praised the Indian audience as he attended the World Audio Visual & Entertainment Summit (WAVES) 2025. On Saturday, he talked about the platform's longest collaboration with actor Saif Ali Khan.

Sarandos attended a session titled, Streaming the New India: Culture, Connectivity and Creative Capital, moderated by Saif.

Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos on Indian audience

Talking to ANI, Sarandos opened up his admiration for the Indian audience, and said, "It was beautiful. The Indian audience is phenomenal. Look where we (Netflix) have come in 9 years."

On Saif Ali Khan, he added, “He (Saif Ali Khan) is fantastic. We have been working together for 7 years. He was our first big star to come to Netflix.”

The World Audio Visual & Entertainment Summit (WAVES) 2025 was held in Mumbai. It was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday.

The four-day event brings together over 10,000 delegates, 1,000 creators, 300 companies, and 350 startups from over 90 countries.

Sarandos to Saif Ali Khan

During the Summit, Sarandos said at Saif's session, “Since 2021 through 2024, especially after COVID, when things got back to normal, we've invested in India in a way that has created USD 2 billion of economic impact from our productions, over 20,000 cast and crew jobs from our productions in India.”

In those productions, we have 150 original films and series that were filmed in 100 different towns and cities in India.”

"It's what makes India so exciting for me too. What streaming has done is kind of got to the audience where they were. If you want to watch a movie, I want to be able to deliver it to you," Sarandos said, adding that in the US, an average person watches two films in cinema in a year, while on OTT, they watch seven films," the OTT giant's co-CEO also mentioned about India.

Sacred Games

Meanwhile, Saif Ali Khan has collaborated with Netflix on several projects, including his hit series Sacred Games. The show was based on Vikram Chandra's novel, which premiered on Netflix in 2018.

Talking about the success of Sacred Games, Sarandos said, “We've been operating in India now for nine years. But we took our big swing seven years ago with 'Sacred Games'...And I knew that India would be a very important part of our journey.”

"What we found with 'Sacred Games' is that great stories could transcend borders, languages and cultures, and really talk to the world. 'Sacred Games' proved that. I'm just so endlessly thrilled to work with the creative community in India all the time," he added.

Saif's most recent release on the platform is Jewel Thief - The Heist Begins.