Netflix seems to be looking at a massive content overhaul after losing over two-thirds of its market value since November. The streaming giant is apparently re-examining its content pipeline and making some major changes to the slate in all of its leading markets, including India. Peepingmoon.com has learned that Netflix India is now mercilessly cutting down on the projects they are not satisfied with. And one of the first Netflix Originals to be trimmed off the slate is Abbas-Mustan’s thriller film, Penthouse.
"Netflix has backed out of Penthouse, starring Bobby Deol, Arjun Rampal, and Sharman Joshi. The OTT service is no longer putting up any projects that don’t meet their expectations and is instead lining up projects that are packed with only global-standard content. They are scrapping all the projects that haven’t turned out as envisioned. Abbas-Mustan’s Penthouse was a keenly-awaited, high-profile project that promised to be a slick and stylish whodunit that would keep the viewers on the edge of their seats till the very end. But that hasn’t translated well on screen, and hence Netflix has decided to not premiere it even though they had announced the film amidst much fanfare last March,” said a source close to the development.
Apparently, Penthouse is not the only project Netflix India has bowed out of. Sources say they have also distanced themselves from a horror-comedy backed by a prominent Bollywood banner. The film in question was announced last year and was to premiere in the second quarter of this year on Netflix, but now the producer is pitching it to other OTT platforms after Netflix declined to release it. "It’s not surprising at all that Netflix is suddenly backing out of projects that are already completed. They have shelved projects even after spending Rs 150 crores on them in the past. Now, when Netflix is at a critical juncture following the loss of 200K subscribers in the first three months of 2022, they are at least trying to maintain their reputation. And hence, they are releasing only quality content while bypassing those that have gone wrong," the source further told us.
For those unfamiliar, Penthouse is the remake of the 2014 Belgian film, The Loft, and revolves around five married men who share ownership of a penthouse loft in the city, which they use to secretly meet their respective mistresses. But the fantasy becomes a nightmare when they discover the dead body of a woman in the loft. The men begin to suspect each other of having committed the gruesome crime, as they are the only ones with keys to the premises. The murder mystery is solved through flashbacks interspersed with present-day scenes. The film began production in November 2020 and was completed in January 2021, and since then has been waiting for a release. But with Netflix refusing to premiere it now, the fate of the film seems to have gone for a toss!
