Bela Bajaria’s season finale: Desi content queen exits Netflix

TOI Correspondent from Washington: Bela Bajaria's rise from her family's car-wash business to the top of Netflix was a classic immigrant success story. As chief content officer at the streaming giant, she knew how to keep millions of viewers eating up hours binge-watching. Keeping her own job, it turns out, was a series she couldn't renew.Word in the industry is that Netflix has shown the door to the desi content queen, who oversaw an annual budget of close to $ 20 billion and turned the streaming platform into a global television powerhouse. The exit comes as Netflix faces mounting pressure to deliver bigger hits and keep viewers hooked. She is being replaced by former Disney and Fox executive Peter Rice in a shake-up that comes amid layoffs affecting about 1,000 employees, or 6% of Netflix's workforce.Netflix has officially described Bajaria's departure as a leadership change, rather than announcing a dismissal, but the timing suggests that its bosses want a reset. Audience engagement has slowed, the company has struggled to reproduce the cultural impact of some of its biggest hits, and investors are scrutinising how effectively its vast content spending translates into viewing.Netflix boss Ted Sarandos, who once credited Bajaria with transforming its global content operation, has indicated that the company wants to take its programming slate to the next level, particularly in the US and Canada. According to a report in the WSJ, he has been complaining internally for months that Americans are spending less time watching Netflix and the service was short on new hit shows.Bajaria's own journey has been remarkable and worthy of a show. Born in London in 1970 to Indian parents, she moved to the US as a child and worked in her family's car-wash business before entering television as an assistant at CBS in 1996. She rose through CBS and NBCUniversal, eventually becoming president of Universal Television -- the first Indian to head a major studio -- where she oversaw productions including Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Mindy Project and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.She joined Netflix in 2016, initially handling licensing, co-productions and unscripted programming, before becoming head of global television in 2020 and chief content officer in January 2023. Her tenure coincided with global hits including Squid Game, Bridgerton, Beef, Adolescence, Lupin, Cobra Kai, KPop Demon Hunters, and Frankenstein, alongside reality programming and Netflix's expansion into live events and sports.For India, her contribution went beyond having a desi face in Hollywood's executive suite. She championed the idea that distinctly local stories could travel globally, helping expand Netflix's Indian-language ambitions. Indian Matchmaking generated worldwide discussion, while Delhi Crime, Mismatched and films such as Amar Singh Chamkila helped diversify the platform's Indian offering. Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar, Sanjay Leela Bhansali's lavish period drama, became a major international showcase, entering Netflix's non-English television top 10 in 43 countries during its first week.Yet her record was not unquestioned, with some critics panning her for “vanity linked projects” involving British royalty, and MAGA types finding her too “woke.” Netflix’ 2026 Primetime Emmy haul also fell sharply from the previous year, adding to questions about its creative momentum.Bajaria has not announced her future plans, but her legacy is likely to rest on whether the global content model she helped build can keep delivering distinctive local stories with worldwide appeal -- and whether Netflix can turn that reach into sustained engagement.