Ektaa Kapoor calls Anurag Kashyap ‘classist, dumb’ for mocking saas-bahu dramas

Recently, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos revealed on Nikhil Kamath’s podcast that he was unsure if the idea of starting Netflix Original programming in India with Sacred Games was the right one.

His remark enraged filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, who called him dumb and suggested he should have started with “saas-bahu” shows. Now, Ektaa Kapoor has hit back at Anurag for his remark, calling him classist.

Reacting to Ted’s take on Sacred Games, Anurag expressed his anger and wrote on Threads, “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 story telling but tedsarandos is the definition of dumb is what I didn’t know. Good to discover that. This explains everything now.”

Ektaa, who recently joined hands with Netflix, hit back at Anurag’s comment on saas-bahu shows and wrote on Instagram, “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!”

While she didn’t name anyone in her post, she added, “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 (sic).”

Ted 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.”

He added, “For me, 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 (instead)? Maybe. But we knew that India was going to be a slower journey to get to where we wanted to get to. But it’s a great prize, at the end of the day. The addressable market is growing in the next couple of years in India, so it’s exciting.”

On Ektaa’s birthday, Netflix announced its collaboration with her. The post read, “Netflix and Ektaa Kapoor’s Balaji Telefilms come together in a creative collaboration to craft compelling stories across formats.” Ektaa further expressed gratitude, calling it her “best gift ever.”