This will be Netflix’s biggest year yet in the country with its slate of 40 plus titles a testament to how “bullish” the network is about telling great stories and entertaining India, Shergilltold PTI last week.

The tough situation the world faced in 2020 prompted the platform to not only experiment with different kinds of shows from diverse cultures, but it also realised it was “more of an emotional part” of people’s lives, she said.

Last week the streamer unveiled more than 40 titles, including original movies, series, documentaries and comedy shows — a slate, Shergill said took them more than a year to plan and execute.

The offering includes 13 films, 15 long-format dramas, non-fiction and comedy shows, covering different spectrums in entertainment.

“It’s our biggest year yet. It has been several months of hard work on the part of creators, on the part of the content team at Netflix… It’s 40-plus titles and it goes right across from big films to big series to returning seasons of series. Then there is a huge unscripted slate, we have some documentaries and comedy formats and comedy specials,” Shergill told PTI in a Zoom interview.

The list includes award-winning films `The Disciple’and `Milestone’as well as Bollywood potboilers in Kartik Aaryan-starrer ‘Dhamaka’and Abbas Mustan’s crime thriller `Penthouse’. Ageing Hindi film divas Madhuri Dixit and Raveena Tandon star in leading roles in ‘Finding Anamika’and cop drama`Aranyak’, respectively. Both these are among the new shows.

`Jamtara’, partly based on real life events of organized phishing scams carried out from the Indian state of Chhattisgarh, Emmy Award winner `Delhi Crime’, which is a police procedural show based on the 2012 Delhi gang rape case, `Mismatched’and woman-centric `She’have been handed a second season.

The Netflix executive said the aim was to discover the best kind of stories and entertainment in India, which is a very important country and audience for the streamer.

The year 2020, defined by the coronavirus pandemic, brought several learning in its wake for Netflix.

“The primary learning, which we’ve always known, is that stories are at the heart of the connection that you build with people who are experiencing them. We felt we were more of an emotional part of everyone’s life because of the tough situation that the world faced.

“There was a lot of experimentation that happened and we realised that the audiences are looking to travel across cultures, to really experience the K-dramas, the Spanish shows and the Hollywood non-fiction much more or documentaries much more,” she said.

Hollywood drama `Extraction’, which was partly set in India and Bangladesh, was dubbed in Hindi, for instance, and turned out to be a big winner.

Though 2021’s offerings are more than double that of 2020, it is not about volume but more about “high impact, high-quality storytelling, and many many choices,” Shergill said during the interview.

“We want to bring maximum choice to our audiences and what we’re doing in the India slate, in 2021, is to really tell as many high-quality stories in as many genres, flavors and formats as we can… Globally, we have always tried to be the home of new talent and seasoned voices and that’s the mix that always brings the best and most innovative stories,” Shergill added.

She said Netflix wants to be the service of choice for viewers across India and the team and its creators are working very hard to accomplish it.

Netflix has been operational in India for five years but started creating original content in the last three years. The demand for stories is more than they are able to offer, but Shergill said she is happy they have managed to strike a balance.

“Ultimately, it is about finding those great stories wherever they come from. We are able to give opportunities to new talent to break through — whether it is on-screen or off-screen, ” she said.