The removal of a popular film title from Netflix in India has raised concerns about how the top streaming service, not to mention other U.S. streamers, will handle going forward the delicate sensibilities of their fastest growing region, Asia-Pacific (aka "APAC").
In India, pressure from right-wing Hindu activists resulted in Netflix taking down Annapoorani: The Goddess of Food, a popular, ostensibly uplifting film about a young female chef overcoming caste prejudice.
And in Malaysia, ex-prime minister Najib Razak, currently jailed on corruption charges, is asking local prosecutors to put takedown pressure on Netflix get eighty-six Man on the Run, a documentary highlighting a corruption scandal that he was in the center of.
Combing through Netflix's "environmental, social and governance" (ESG) reports from 2019-2022 finds that of the 21 films removed from the No. 1 streaming service, 11 of them originated from APAC.
And on a percentage bases, APAC is the fastest growing of Netflix's four global operating regions, with a subscriber base expanding by more than 11% through the first three quarters of 2023, per the streaming company's Q3 shareholders letter. (Netflix reports Q4 numbers Tuesday.)
Annapoorani, a movie about a daughter who defies her upper-caste religious father when she enters a cooking contest with a dish featuring meat, was taken . “My team and I never intended to hurt anyone’s sentiments and we understand the gravity of this issue … The intention behind ‘Annapoorani’ was to uplift and inspire, not to cause distress.” as to call the film “evil,” while threatening legal action.
According to the New York Times, activist Ramesh Solanki, a self-described “very proud Hindu Indian nationalist,” filed a police complaint claiming Annapoorani was “intentionally released to hurt Hindu sentiments.” He said it mocked Hinduism by “depicting our gods consuming non-vegetarian food.”
“We did not expect the removal of a censored film, previously showcased in theatres, from the OTT platform,” said the film’s star Nayanthra in a post on X. “My team and I never intended to hurt anyone’s sentiments and we understand the gravity of this issue… The intention behind Annapoorani was to uplift and inspire, not to cause distress.”
Annapoorani ranked fourth among non-English films on Netflix's global weekly ranker during its debut week, Jan. 1-7, amassing 7.5 million viewing hours and 3.1 million viewers worldwide.
Responding to the movie's removal, Netflix's only statement was, “The film has been removed at the licensor’s request.”
Even though the decision to pull the plug locally on Annapoorani doesn't appear to have come from Netflix, the film's removal from Netflix serves to highlight the tricky terrain American streaming services are navigating as they try to serve the world's fastest growing streaming market.
In Malaysia, Razak's campaign ironically aided viewership for the Netflix documentary it was fighting to take down, with Man on the Run jumping briefly to become the second-most watched film in the country. An X user even went so far as to say Razak "gave free press to Man on the Run."
Singapore, which has made the most successful takedown demands of any country listed on Netflix’s annual ESG reports from 2019-2022, with eight, frequently removes content seen as glorifying drug use.
The Philippines also requested that Netflix remove two episodes of Australian spy series Pine Gap, for showing maps of the South China Sea that officials claim violated Philippine sovereignty.
However, countries like Indonesia and Vietnam are taking things a step further, demanding that streaming companies succumb to more government oversight on the front end. In Indonesia, which regularly censors LGBTQ content, the broadcasting commission is pushing parliament to give it censorship control over streaming companies.
And last year in Vietnam, legislators mandated that streaming services obtain licenses and establish legal entities in the country in order to continue operating there.
But Netflix hasn’t always rolled over to censorship demands. In 2020, the platform resisted a Brazilian judge’s order to remove a satirical film depicting Jesus as a gay man by appealing to the country’s supreme court.
