New Delhi:

Propelled by the popularity of titles such as “Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar”, “The Great Indian Kapil Show” and “Amar Singh Chamkila”, India has emerged as the third country in revenue per cent growth for streaming service Netflix in its second quarter.

The streamer released its second quarter earnings for 2024 on Thursday and Indian content seems to have made significant strides this year alongside popular international shows such as “Bridgerton 3”, “Baby Reindeer”, Korean drama “Queen of Tears” and films such as “Hit Man” and “Under Paris”.

India and the UK have had especially strong slates this year, according to the streamer.

In Q2, India was the second and third country in terms of paid net adds and revenue per cent growth, respectively due to the success of titles like Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s “Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar”, which had 15 million views to become the streamer’s biggest Indian drama series ever.

Imtiaz Ali-directed biopic “Amar Singh Chamkila” with 8.3 million views was another major title for Netflix, which also registered success with licensed films such as Kiran Rao’s “Laapataa Ladies” and Ajay Devgn-starrer horror drama “Shaitaan”.

From the UK, “Baby Reindeer”, which has earned 11 Emmy nominations, emerged as the big hit with 88.4 million views. “The Gentlemen”, “One Day” and “Fool Me Once” also spent multiple weeks on the streamer’s global TV top 10 list.

The upcoming line-up for India in 2024 includes non-fiction content such as “Modern Masters feat. SS Rajamouli”, “Nayanthara: Beyond the Fairy Tale” and “Yo Yo Honey Singh”.

In the fiction space, most anticipated returning titles are “Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein” season two, “Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba”, “The Great Indian Kapil Show S2”, the third season of “Fabulous Lives Vs Bollywood Wives”.

Anubhav Sinha’s gripping drama “IC814: The Kandahar Hijack”, “Do Patti” and “Vijay 69” are some of the other projects from India to come out on the streamer this year.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A former executive at a prominent gaming company has been sentenced to death for the murder of the founder, Lin Qi, in 2020. Xu Yao was convicted of poisoning Mr Qi’s food in December 2020 following a professional dispute. The Shanghai First Intermediate People’s Court handed down the sentence. 

Lin Qi, the founder of Yoozoo Games, a gaming company with significant ties to Game of Thrones and the Netflix series The Three-Body Problem, had secured a lucrative deal with Netflix. However, tensions arose when an executive named Xu Yao who was heading Yoozoo’s subsidiary “Three-Body Universe”, discovered that his name was omitted from the Netflix deal announcement, despite Mr Qi being credited as the executive producer, the Sun reported.

This then led the disgruntled former TV executive to begin plotting Mr Qi’s death. Drawing inspiration from the TV series Breaking Bad, Mr Yao set up a laboratory in Shanghai, where he experimented with over 100 toxins obtained from the dark web, testing them on small, defenseless animals.

Despite initial speculation that Lin Qi was poisoned through cups of Chinese tea, it was later revealed that Xu Yao had laced a bottle of probiotic tablets with poisonous pills, which were taken by Mr Qi and several colleagues. 

Mr Qi fell ill shortly after and was hospitalised on December 16, 2020, showing symptoms of mercury poisoning. Later, he succumbed to a neurotoxin found in puffer fish and died 10 days later on Christmas Day, despite extensive medical efforts.

Xu Yao has been sentenced to death in China after being found guilty of poisoning Lin Qi and four others. 

Yoozoo Games created Game of Thrones: Winter Is Coming, a game inspired by the acclaimed TV series. In 2000, Mr Qi was ranked 870 among China’s richest entrepreneurs, boasting a net worth of 6.8 billion yuan ($1 billion), as reported by the BBC.

Microsoft Founder Bill Gates, the ninth richest man in the world, used to fly economy class on flights for many years. This was revealed by the Co-founder of Netflix, Marc Randolph. He also shared an interesting reason for the same and stated that Mr Gates did not consider flying by first class to be of “good value”. 

Mr Randolph took to X, formerly Twitter and wrote, “For many years, Bill Gates used to fly Economy, not because he couldn’t afford First Class, but because he didn’t consider it good value. It’s five or six times more expensive, but only marginally better (and you all get to your destination at the same time).” He also shared a picture of the billionaire working on his laptop while sitting in the economy section of an aircraft. 

For many years, Bill Gates used to fly Economy, not because he couldn’t afford First Class, but because he didn’t consider it good value. It’s five or six times more expensive, but only marginally better (and you all get to your destination at the same time).

In the same vein, I… pic.twitter.com/Cm8HgKlqTS

— Marc Randolph (@mbrandolph) October 22, 2023

He then drew a parallel and said that even though he can afford a luxury car, he does not intend to buy it because his Volvo station wagon “does the job just fine”. “In the same vein, I could afford a really nice car at this point, but I’ve never been a car guy, and I don’t need a Lamborghini or a Mazerati (which I can’t even spell). A Volvo station wagon does the job just fine, and I wouldn’t value the difference. I don’t need to drop $1000 on a bottle of wine at dinner either, since I know I’ll get the same enjoyment from a $35 bottle,” he continued on the platform.

The Netflix Co-founder then stated that having enough money brings both security and freedom. “So what is wealth good for, in the end? Besides providing security, it also gives flexibility. After all of the experiences I’ve had, the most important thing I’ve learned about money is that, once you have enough (by the previous definition), you can choose to have less of it in exchange for choosing how to spend your time. And spending your time doing something meaningful to you…that’s worth way more than a Mazerati,” he concluded. 

Since being shared, his post has amassed 3.9 million views and over 13,000 likes.

A user said, “Wealth for me is the opportunity to invest in founders and startups that I want to see win because they aspire to solve problems that I care about deeply.” Replying to him, Mr Randolph said that he could “relate to that”.

“Money buys you time, freedom and flexibility, that is what really makes me feel ‘rich’,” said another person.

Another commented, “Perfectly stated.”

However, some people had a different outlook on Mr Randolph’s post. “A couple of notes: – when he was flying economy, the seats were probably the size of current “premium economy”. – when you go above a certain level/price you need to be able to appreciate the quality otherwise everything looks the same. This is true for both cars and wine,” a user added.

“Flying economy despite affording better isn’t a flex. Your legs deserve to not swell if you can afford it,” said another user.

A third person added, “Bill Gates only flew economy because Microsoft made everyone in the company fly economy, probably due to Gates trying to save a buck. And he bought a private jet in 1997.”