Simran Sethi, the Los Angeles-based director of Netflix international originals, responsible for India content, has resigned and will quit after a transition period.
Netflix did not comment. Sources familiar with the matter told Variety that Netflix prefers an executive based in India to oversee local original content that has now grown to 11 series and 22 films. Sethi, who grew up in the U.S., chose to remain there for personal reasons, the source said.
Sethi’s replacement could hail from within India or from outside, but the role will be based in Mumbai as it requires dealing with local content creators on a daily basis.
Sethi is the second high-profile executive to choose to stay in Los Angeles rather than move to Mumbai, after Swati Shetty. A former Disney executive who went on to produce Sundance audience award winner “Umrika,” Shetty joined Netflix in August 2016 and relocated to Los Angeles from Mumbai. When her role required her to move back to Mumbai, Shetty quit, and after a cooling off period, joined Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment as VP, international content, a Los Angeles-based position.
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Sethi joined Netflix in August 2017 after stints at Freeform, NBC, Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison and Sony Pictures Television. While Netflix global hit “Sacred Games” was already commissioned when Sethi joined, shows commissioned or acquired under her watch include Richie Mehta’s acclaimed “Delhi Crime,” Deepa Mehta’s “Leila,” due June 14, and “Bard of Blood,” from Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment.