Bela Bajaria was a few months into her job as the leader of Netflix’s international content expansion campaign in 2019 when she fully realized the significance of the opportunity ahead.
The production of local original content was not destined to be a side business for Netflix — it is the business, and increasingly so as the world’s largest subscription streaming platform relies on growth outside the U.S. to drive future profits. Netflix’s oft-stated goal is to be the platform that has something for every subscriber and every viewing mood — morning, noon and night. By that definition, Netflix has to invest enormous resources in programs, films and events that matter to subscribers. And that can’t be done all in English for a global subscription platform that reaches 190-plus countries (and transacts business in 45 currencies).
“There’s no road map for this — local programming is unprecedented at this scale,” Bajaria, now Netflix’s chief content officer, tells Variety.
For the extraordinary contributions made by Netflix to the global content landscape, Bajaria will receive the Vanguard Award from Variety and Mipcom during the international content marketplace and summit that runs Oct. 12-15 in Cannes. The kudo will be presented at the Palais des Festivals on Oct. 12 and will include an onstage conversation with Cynthia Littleton, Variety’s co-editor in chief.
“We understand that great storytelling can come from anywhere, and now the discovery and technology give you access to all of these stories from around the world,” Bajaria says. “Every Netflix production is a very deeply local production — that means from local creative executives in that creative community who live there, who speak the language, who grew up in that business.”
Today, Netflix has a $20 billion content budget and offices in 27 countries. The streamer produces TV and original movies in 50 different languages for more than 50 countries. It also commissions thousands of hours of local-language content each year. Shonda Rhimes, the powerhouse show runner who signed on with Netflix in 2017, calls Bajaria “decisive” and “frank” in ways that mesh well with her own style.
“There’s not ever an issue when you’re talking to her and she’s afraid to act. Especially in this era we’re in with television, and everybody’s feeling so uncertain, it’s very rare to spend time with a decisive person like that,” Rhimes tells Variety. “I love being able to talk to somebody who can give me a definitive yes or no. Bela’s that person.”
Bajaria came to Netflix in 2016 to spearhead the streamer’s push into unscripted content. That was a big professional shift for someone who’d spent most of her career in scripted TV, over more than 15 years at CBS and later as the head of NBC’s Universal Television.
Bajaria grew up in London and in Zambia before her family relocated to Torrance when she was 9. In 2019, when she was promoted to lead Netflix’s international originals strategy, Bajaria seized the unique chance to assemble a worldwide network of content hubs.
Bajaria got out her passport and hit the road (and the skies) to meet with producers and executives in far-flung corners. It was exhilarating, she recalls. Her travel schedule has not let up since.
“I’ve been at Netflix for almost 10 years. Netflix has grown a lot over the last decade, but the ambition and the goal have always been the same: We want to be the most creative entertainment company in the world,” says Bajaria. “When we started opening the country offices and hiring local teams, we always wanted to have shows and films that people loved, no matter which country they lived in, the language they speak or whatever mood they were in.”
In 2019, the rationale was that “to become a global company and to do local storytelling, it’s going to take the investment and local hiring. It wasn’t really one region at a time. We had a few pockets of people in different regional offices, but it was like OK, even if we have people in Singapore for Asia, we really need a Tokyo office, a Seoul office, a Bangkok office. In India, we had a couple of people in Mumbai, but it really was more U.S. people, so we went in and started to build it up,” Bajaria recalls.
Typically, Bajaria focused on hiring a plugged-in creative executive with great contacts. The arrival of Netflix in many regions, including South Korea and areas of Africa, has been a watershed moment that helped turbocharge local production infrastructure, jobs and expenditures. At present, the company has done business with more than 2,000 local production outfits during the last 10 years.
Bajaria was promoted to chief content officer in January 2023, taking oversight of Netflix original films as well as TV series, live events and a burgeoning lineup of sports rights. She may oversee the biggest programming slate in the history of moving pictures, but she’s never too busy to weigh in when asked and to be forthcoming when it matters most, in Rhimes’ experience.
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“She’s very frank with me,” Rhimes says. “I don’t do well with platitudes, and I don’t do well with people talking in metaphors or trying to say something in a passive way. Bela’s like ‘That didn’t work for me,’ and I really appreciate that in a world in which I think most people don’t want to tell you exactly what they think.”
Rhimes moved her company’s home base to Netflix from Disney in 2017, about 18 months after Netflix threw open its doors to international business in January 2016.
Today, Netflix, as of its latest disclosures, counts about 95 million subscribers in the U.S. and Canada, or about 29% of its 325 million total subscribers at the end of 2025. Europe, the Middle East and Africa combined account for about 109 million subscribers, followed by Asia-Pacific (65 million) and Latin America (59 million).
Rhimes says there’s a special kind of cultural wallop that comes from launching a show on the scale of “Bridgerton” or 2022’s “Inventing Anna” on a platform that offers simultaneous global reach. Rhimes’ previous hit dramas, such as ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Scandal,” traveled the world but never with the impact of being available everywhere all at once, a la “Bridgerton.”
Year one of the costume drama set in Regency-era England — which dropped on Christmas Day 2020 — rocketed star Regé-Jean Page to stardom. The experience opened up Rhimes’ vision for storylines and backdrops for Shondaland’s creations.
“That was such a tremendous feeling to know that it was conversation everywhere — literally globally,” Rhimes says of the “Bridgerton” bow. “There’s something about it that allows me to think less in terms of American stories and more in terms of placing things in a more international way.”
Bajaria is quick to reel off statistics that give a sense of Netflix’s scope.
Among other notable numbers:
- Netflix has generated 425,000 production jobs around the world in 10 years.
- In Mexico, Netflix does biz with more than 50 local production companies. They’ve committed to spending $1 billion on content targeted for Mexico from 2025-2028.
- Netflix has committed $2.5 billion to spend on Korean content from 2023-2027.
How in the world does Bajaria keep up with it all? As a veteran creative executive, she also knows how to pick the right time to get involved on a detail level with programs.
“When I click play, I’m watching it as fresh eyes,” she says. “There’s no great plan for why I watch this or I don’t watch that. [Netflix executives] send things to me. As I’m traveling, I’m watching something constantly. The interesting thing is — either you get transported and engaged in the story, or you don’t. It’s never, ‘Well, it must be because of a language barrier or it’s culturally specific.’ No, the show or the movie just didn’t work. Storytelling is universal. Either you go for the ride or you don’t.”
Bajaria emphasizes that the focus is on developing regional and language-specific hits and to seed franchises that keep subscribers engaged. When a local-language program or movie blows up, a la Korea’s “Squid Game” or France’s “Lupin” or, early on, Spain’s “La Casa de Papel,” it’s a gamechanger for viewership and subscribers.
But the shows first and foremost have to connect with local audiences.
“There’s always this constant at the end of the day. Whether you’re in São Paulo or London or Bangkok, there’s a filmmaker or creator who has a vision and something to say and you back that vision. Ultimately that is the core part of the job we do — supporting the vision or storytelling,” Bajaria says.
“There’s great fandom for anime that we make from Japan, and people love Korean content. And there’s definitely times when people discover something like ‘Chestnut Man’ from the Nordics or ‘Blood of Sacrifice’ from Sweden. Then they start discovering more things from that country,” she says.
“As people are more open to things from different countries or discover a different genre, like maybe anime, then that opens up a whole world,” she says.
During her early tour to build up Netflix’s hubs, She learned something she found comforting: Every time I’d go in like oh it’s a new country, I’m learning all these things about cultural nuances and a lot of different factors.’ But at the end of the day, it came down to, oh right we support great talent and great voices. That is the same sitting in Hollywood or sitting in another country.”
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Beyond ‘Squid Game’
10 local-language originals that have resonated globally for Netflix
Series
Alice in Borderland
Japan, 2025 (3 seasons)
An aimless gamer in Tokyo is thrust into a survival game.
All of Us Are Dead
Korea, 2022 (1 season)
High schoolers battle a zombie virus.
Delhi Crime
India, 2019 (3 seasons)
Police probe high-profile crimes in the sprawling city.
Lupin
France, 2021 (Season 4 premieres Oct. 23)
A “gentleman thief” works to avenge an injustice inflicted on his father by a wealthy family.
La Palma
Norway, 2024 (1 season)
A Norwegian family struggles to survive a record-breaking tsunami.
Senna
Brazil, 2024 (1 season)
The rise and fall of Brazilian Formula 1 driver Ayrton Senna.
Who Killed Sara?
Mexico, 2022 (3 seasons)
A wrongly convicted man seeks revenge on the family that framed him.
Movies
Exterritorial
Germany, 2025
An ex-special-forces soldier seeks to free her son after he disappears in the U.S. consulate.
Society of the Snow
Spain, 2024
Plane crash victims form unbreakable bonds to survive in the Andes.
Under Paris
France, 2024
A female scientist battles a killer shark who turns up in the Seine.
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